ANOTHER read the books fic!
by TulipNixphe
Summary: I have taken a break in writing this, check out my profile for details. It's another one! I think I am adding my own twist as I have yet to read one like mine. I will eventually make a fic that is a prequel that should answer any questions formed over the reading.
1. PlipPlop, Random disappearances

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does

Warnings:mentions of abuse

* * *

With: Albus Dumbledore

Albus Dumbledore, who many referred to as a mad old coot or Professor Dumbledore, was sitting at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix listening to Severus Snape and Sirius Black argue when suddenly he felt a peculiar feeling like being on a merry-go-round that was spinning _much _to fast. The rest of the Order could only watch shocked as he disappeared. In a place that felt familiar but he could not place the feeling he fell from the air, about five feet, with a **flump **because he had fallen on a couch.

* * *

Bill Weasley was talking with his girlfriend, Fleur Delacour, when he disappeared only to reappear in a room that already had a dazed Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall. The two professors watched astounded as he fell and a couch appeared below him.

* * *

Charlie Weasley was at the dragon reserve that he worked at trying to subdue a dragon when he disappeared and landed on a couch in a room that was _very_ far away from the reserve even if he did not know it yet.

* * *

Draco Malfoy was in the library at Malfoy manor reading a book on the Dark Arts when he felt dizzy and vanished, only to appear in a room that had many people in it including his head of house Severus Snape.

* * *

Fillius Flitwick was reading a book on charms while drinking his tea when he started to spin in circles then seemed to fade away only to land on a couch in a room with his fellow professors and some current and past students with his tea still in his hands.

* * *

Fred Weasley was trying to eavesdrop on the Order meeting with his twin, and their younger brother and sister, as well as his youngest brother's best friend, one of them at least. When they all vanished leaving a bewildered cat behind.

* * *

George Weasley was eavesdropping on the Order meeting using an invention of his and his twin's that they called Extendable Ears, when his twin went poof! George soon went poof as well. Leaving behind his baffled younger siblings and Hermione Granger.

* * *

Ginny Weasley had just watched three of her older brothers disappear as well as her friend Hermione Granger vanish and was wondering what happened when she felt a tickling sensation and vanished as well.

* * *

Godric Gryffindor was teaching his first year students the proper way to hold a sword when as he corrected one student's grip seemed to dissolve with a clang as his goblin made sword fell to the ground. He appeared in the air in a room that had two of his best friends in it as well as his wife along with some people he did not know. He, unlike the others, fell to the floor with a great crash instead of a couch appearing underneath him.

* * *

Harry Potter was out in the backyard of the Dursley's weeding in the blazing hot sun being careful of tweaking his back too much because he was still sore from yesterday's beating, excuse me, _accident. _When he felt the familiar feeling of his brother's magic and let it guide him to his unexpected as well as unknown destination, he landed gracefully on his feet in a room that had some of his friends and family as well as his enemies and random people he had yet to meet. 'Well,' he thought '_this_ ought to be interesting.'

* * *

Helga Hufflepuff was teaching a class of third years Herbology when she felt the familiar feeling of her friend's magic pulling her away. Her class watched confused as their teacher just disappeared in the middle of a lecture. She fell on a couch and it was not a very graceful fall.

* * *

Hermione Granger watched as one of her best friends, Ron, his two older brothers just evaporated. She shared a wary look with her friends Ron and Ginny, before she too evaporated.

* * *

Kingsley Shacklebolt was just sitting at the Order meeting getting a headache because of the yelling of Severus Snape and Sirius Black, which had only momentarily stopped when the founder of the Order, Albus Dumbledore, just disappeared. When he too vanished leaving worried Order members behind. He reappeared in a room that already had Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Bill Weasley, the Weasley twins, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley sitting on couches and armchairs.

* * *

Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody got his wand out as soon as Dumbledore disappeared, he began to look all around as he he saw Minerva McGonagall get a strange look on her face and then disappear, he was tensed for battle as he watched both Bill Weasley and Kingsley Shacklebolt vanish, he began to yell when he suddenly felt a strange feeling, with a final yell of "CONSTANT VIGILANCE" he disappeared. His yell made the rest of the Order jump and _ finally_ notice the missing members.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall watched bewildered as her best friend and long-time colleague disappear when she herself felt a peculiar sensation and disappeared. She landed in a room that already had Albus in it just as she was about to ask him what was going on there was a flash of light and Bill Weasley appeared.

* * *

Mr. Weasley Mrs. Weasley were worried as their eldest son disappeared when fellow Order members Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad eye Moody vanished. As the couple began to get relly worried they felt a poke in the back of their heads and they began to get dizzy and vanished. Only to appear in a room with the missing Order members.

* * *

Neville Longbottom disappeared ffrom the greenhouse he was tending his precious plants in and reappeared in an unknown room.

* * *

Nymphadora Tonks was talking with her crush Remus Lupin when he suddenly disappeared! She disappeared soon after him they both fell onto a love seat. (hint much) She, being the clumsy person she is, fell off of the love seat.

* * *

Pomona Sprout was tending to her garden when her plants started to act weird she felt a spinning sensation right before she fell onto an armchair.

* * *

Remus Lupin was talking to Tonks when _he_ disappeared, he landed in a room full of people on a love seat with Tonks landing beside him not long after.

* * *

Ron Weasley watched as his older twin brothers vanished before he to vanished.

* * *

Rowena Ravenclaw was in the library supervising a study hall when she touched a book on Charms and vanished.

* * *

Rubeus Hagrid was hiking with Olympe Maxime they were on their way to try and convince the giants that they should side with the Light when he was hoisted in the air and vanished with a slight tinkle.

* * *

Salazar Slytherin was teaching a fifth year class about the Draught of Peace and instructed the students to began brewing when a cauldron exploded and landed on Salazar and when the smoke from the potion cleared his students could see that he had vanished.

* * *

Severus Snape and Sirius Black were arguing and had failed to notice any of the Order members except Albus disappear when they each fired a hex at the other at the same time and both disappeared.

* * *

That was the end of chapter one pee-opo-lees, please review!

\/


	2. Introductions

Everyone started to talk at once as soon as it became clear that there would be no more people arriving. There was a flash of light and a bang when everyone could see again they saw a letter and a stack of books in front of Harry Potter. Harry picked up the letter and opened it, cleared his throat and began to read the letter. It said;

Dear everyone,

You have been brought to this room to read books about Harry Potter's life so far and his future. The people in this room have been chosen to change the future and are the ones who would be most effective in this task. Time has been stopped in this room for the time being. I could only send the books back twenty years, you know the rules brother, please do not judge people until all of the books have been read.

The next books will not open until the previous book has been read completely. People cannot be punished for misdeeds in the book as they have either already past or are in the future. Harry I know you dislike Professor Snape but you can trust him, I do.

The room is unable to provide food so when you get hungry ask for Tim eon, he will get you food.

Love you all,

H.P.

P.S. No I am NOT my brother we just have the same initials

P.P.S Sorry for not being there in the next few years Brother, I was busy with the birth of our, nephew this coming May, the death of my beloved dog this coming June, and a year after the death of our grandfather, then the death of my Uncle and new Aunt.

Harry was in shock, his sister was with child? As well as some of the people he considered family dying soon.

"Well lets read them shall we?" Professor Dumbledore asked without looking at Harry. Which made Harry confused and annoyed.

"We should introduce ourselves first and say something interesting about ourselves as I don't recognize some of the people in this room." stated Harry.

"Great idea Mr. Potter. I will start, I am Professor Minerva McGonagall and I teach Transfiguration at Hogwarts, I am also Head of Gryffindor." introduced McGonagall.

"I'm Professor Albus Dumbledore, I am the Headmaster at Hogwarts."

"I am Bill Weasley, I work at Gringotts,"

"I'm Charlie Weasley, Bill's brother I work with dragons."

"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Heir to the Malfoy titles and a pureblood."

"I'm Professor Fillius Flitwick. I teach Charms at Hogwarts and am Head of Ravenclaw."

"I am Fred and" said George

"I am his twin George." continued Fred

"We are the Weasley twins and Bill and Charlie are our two eldest brothers." they finished together.

"I am Ginny Weasley, if you make me angry I will not hesitate to hex you."

"I'm Godric Gryffindor, founder of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts, I am married to Helga Hufflepuff. I consider Salazar, Hadrian, and Rowena my brothers and sister."

"Wait your really Godric Gryffindor?" asked Remus.

"The one and only!"

"WOW." exclaimed Remus.

" I am Harry Potter, also known as Hadrian Phoenicia, I have two cousins, one that I hate, and one that I am ashamed to be related to. I live with my Aunt and Uncle and my Great Aunt alternately."

"I am Helga Hufflepuff, I am the founder of Hufflepuff at Hogwarts. Adrian what did you do to your back?"

"I am Hermione Granger I love to read."

"I am Kingsley Shacklebolt, I am an Auror."

"I am Alastor Moody, CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" shouted Moody making everyone jump and Harry to wince which Helga saw and fixed up immediately.

" I am Arthur Weasley, I am Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny's father."

"I'm Molly Weasley, I am Arthur's wife."

"I-I'm N-neville Longbottom I enjoy Herbology."

"I am Tonks, I am also a metamorphagus." said the newly introduced Tonks as she changed her hair to bubblegum pink.

"I am Professor Pomona Sprout I teach Herbology and am Head of the house of Hufflepuff at Hogwarts."

"I am Remus Lupin, I'm a werewolf." said Lupin cringing.

"Really? I had thought they were extinct, Adrian, why didn't you tell us your mphfh-" Rowena began to say before Harry covered her mouth with his hand and gave her a warning look.

He ignored the curious looks sent his way by rest of the room.

"Hi I'm Ron Weasley."

"Hello I am Rowena Ravenclaw founder of the Hogwarts house of Ravenclaw."

"'Ello I'm Hagrid."

"Greetings I am Salazar Slytherin founder of the house of Slytherin at Hogwarts."

"Good-day, must we read about the Potter brat? I am Head of Slytherin house Professor Snape." said Snape with a sneer.

"I'm Sirius Black and don't call my godson a brat Snivellus."

"Well since that is all of us, who would like to read?" asked Harry holding up the book that had a number one on it and ignoring the glares that were being sent towards him from Professor Snape and Malfoy.

"I would like to Adrian." said Godric.

"What? Ric, reading?" exclaimed his friends at the same time. (that's the other three founders and Harry)

"Shut-up." said Ric as he grabbed the first book.

* * *

That concludes chapter 2 please review.


	3. TheBoyWhoLived, and is now annoyed

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does, I might not own all of the words to this story either because I copied and pasted to Word instead of typing out the whole book and then changed what they, the characters, said.

**Book = bold**

People in room = regular

**_Is what I added to the book = bold italics_**

Letters sent from the future = underlined_  
_

**mental speak = bold and in qoutes( I can not get it to underline so it will be Bolded and in Quotes)**

'thoughts' = regular with apostrophes on both sides

~parseltounge~ = well it looks like that

* * *

**The Boy Who Lived. **Read Godric.

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,**

Harry groaned. Why did the Dursleys have to be in the book?

**of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.**

"You are very welcome!" announced Salazar.

"Pish Posh! Who wants to be normal?" exclaimed George.

"Yeah; where's the fun in that?" cried Fred.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.**

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors.**

"What horrible people!" exclaimed Helga.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

Harry gave a snort of laughter, making quite a few people look at him funny.

**"Hadrian?"** Harry was asked mentally by Salazar.

**"Well Dudley isn't exactly small, is he? Not to mention their vivid imagination, which Uncle Vernon doesn't approve of, if they think he looks** **fine." **Harry sent back to him and their three friends along with a picture of Dudley from when he was a baby.

They all laughed out loud, making they rest of the room give them strange looks.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"There's nothing wrong with the Potters!" cried most of the room.

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister,**

Snape sneered, 'of course, Petunia was always jealous of Lily.'

**because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.**

"Not a word!" shouted Professor Flitwick.

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street.**

"How nice to meet you. Is what they would say." said Helga angrily

" Or 'Your relatives are so nice, what happened to you?'" Rowena said.

**The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"A child like what?" asked Ron, seeming personally insulted.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

McGonagall frowned, what an awful child.

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

"But what about your post?" asked Malfoy.

"Muggles don't get post from owls." said Hermione.

Malfoy frowned. "Then how do the get it?"

"People bring it to them, and stick it in their post box."

Malfoy laughed, "Idiots! They're wasting time!"

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.**

Mrs. Weasley's face clearly showed that if any of her children had ever tried anything of the sort, they wouldn't get away with it. her children saw the look and cringed. This was making their friends laugh at them; Tonks at Charlie, and the Harry and Hermione laughed at the looks on Fred, George, Ron and Ginny's faces.

**"Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley**

"Don't encourage him!" cried Mrs. Weasley.

**as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar a cat reading a map.**

"What in the world are you doing there, 'Fessor Change?" asked Harry.

"How do you know it is me?" asked the newly dubbed 'Fessor Change' " Also DON't call me 'Fessor Change, Mr. Potter."

"Whatever you say 'Fessor Change" Harry grinned cheekily. The last two True Marauders gave him thumbs up when McGonagall wasn't looking.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of?**

**It must have been a trick of the light.**

"Idiot." Malfoy muttered.

"Oh my Merlin, the Walrus THINKS!" exclaimed Hermione of all people.

"We'll corrupt you yet!" shouted the Twins.

**Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.**

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day. ****But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"Well that's not strange!" shouted Salazar.

"To muggles it is." explained Hermione.

"But muggles wear cloaks all of the time." said a very confused Salazar. Godric just rolled his eyes and continued to read.

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together.**

**Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him!**

"Oh, the nerve!" cried Fred.

"What are they thinking?" cried his twin.

"Shut up!" Malfoy groaned.

**But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt these people were obviously collecting for something yes, that would be it.**

Malfoy snorted, "Not very smart, these muggles." he said.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with you, Malfoy." said Harry in complete seriousness.

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

"You've got to hand it to him," said Fred, "Being that boring must take some skill."

"How can anyone have such a boring mind?" said George.

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime.**

"They've never seen an owl?"

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people.**

"Pleasant fellow." muttered George.

**He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"A real charmer." said Fred.

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road**

"What?" Harry suddenly cried, causing several people to jump. "Did you read that correctly, Ric?"

People were giving him weird looks.

"Yes, 'Rian," said Godric,.

"AHHH, the world is ending!" shouted Harry

**to buy himself a bun from the bakers opposite.**

"Ah," said Harry, smiling relieved, "Now that I can believe. Crisis averted people!"

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard "**

**" Yes, their son, Harry "**

The adults all paled as they finally realized what day this must be.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

"YEA!." whisper shouted Harry under his breath. Luckily Hermione didn't hear him or she would have slapped him on the back of the head.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking no, he was being stupid.**

**"Ha!" Harry barked out a laugh. "He got that right, didn't he?"**

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"He doesn't know your name?" cried Lupin in shock.

"He does too!" said Fred, in mock outrage.

"Yeah, you heard him!" said George.

"His name is Harvey!" they said together.

Harry groaned. He had a feeling the twins had just decided on a nickname for him. 'Joy!'

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her if he'd had a sister like that**

Snape was glaring at the book, unnoticed by all but Dumbledore.

**but all the same, those people in cloaks**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

Harry frowned. "Poor bloke." he said, completely serious. "He didn't get injured, did he?"

**"Sorry,"**

Harry's mouth dropped open, to the amusement of many others. "Did he really just say that?"

"Be quiet, Harvey!" snapped Fred.

"Yeah!" said George, irritably, "We're trying to listen to the story!"

Harry just rolled his eyes.

**he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell.**

"Is he dead?" asked a concerned Harry.

"No Mr. Potter, I assure you I am very much alive." answered a blushing Professor Flitwick. Harry blushed.

**It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!**

Now the rest of the room knew what day it was, and they looked at Harry sadly.

Harry discreetly rolled his eyes, 'His parents had died years ago, he wouldn't break down sobbing at the mere mention of it.'

**Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

"They need to be more careful!" said Pomona to Minerva. "They're being completely careless!"

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"He must have some long arms." said Harry.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination**.

Hermione looked at Harry strangely.

"What?" he asked, self conscious.

"How do you have such a vivid imagination if they didn't approve of it?"

He shrugged. "I am nothing like my Uncle." he said sternly.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw and it didn't improve his mood was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning.**

Fred and George wiggled their eyebrows suggestively at McGonagall again, who looked like she was trying desperately to hold back a smile.

**It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"Definitely McGonagall!" the twins snorted.

**Was this normal cat behavior, Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word!"Won't!").**

"That isn't something to be proud of!" cried Mrs. Weasley.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

**"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The news reader allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

"That was my Dad" shouted an excited Tonks.

**"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters**

"You mean he actually put all that together?" Harry asked, impressed.

"SILENCE!" cried Snape. "How are we ever going to finish these books if we keep getting interrupted.

"Yeah, Harvey, be quiet!" said the twins, winking.

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously.**

**"Er Petunia, dear you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

**"No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

"Oooh, what a charming woman!" said Ginny sarcastically.

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls shooting stars and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today "**

**"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

**"Well, I just thought maybe it was something to do with you know her crowd."**

There was a raging outbreak at this.

"Her crowd? Her crowd?"

"What is that suppose to mean!"

"I swear these muggles! "

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

"No!" cried the twins in mock outrage. "It's Harvey!"

**"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

**"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

"Well I don't!" snapped Ginny. "Harry is a lovely name." she blushed when everyone looked at her.

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

McGonagall huffed, glaring at Dumbledore. She had certainly waited a long time, she was stiff after that and had had to take a muscle relaxant draught.

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did if it got out that they were related to a pair of well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

There were many grumbles throughout theroom. With every sentence read, they liked the Dursleys less and less.

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on he yawned and turned over it couldn't affect them**

**How very wrong he was.**

"For the first and last time in my life," said Harry quietly, "I wish he was right."

This comment was not missed by the staff, who exchanged nervous glances.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness.**

Sirius scoffed. "Minnie doesn't need sleep!"

She raised her eyebrows at this. "I assure you, Mr. Black, I do sleep. I am human you know." Sirius looked sheepish (A.N. Imagine Sirius in a sheep costume like in the Big Bad Wolf in The Three Little Pigs.)

**It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

The twins opened their mouths, but thought better of it when McGonagall glared at them.

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.**

"What's Dumbledore doing there?" asked Ron.

**He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice.**

"I wonder how that happened," said Fred to his brother.

"Let's ask-

But George was interrupted by their mother who had, unfortunately, overheard. "You will do no such thing!" she snapped.

The twins lowered their heads.

**This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

A few of the students cheered, in fact all of them had cheered except Malfoy and Harry, though Sirius, Bill and Charlie also cheered.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

Dumbledore frowned and pouted. "I-it wasn't?"

Harry cracked a smile. Angry as he was at Dumbledore for avoiding eye contact with him all day so far, he could not stay mad at the man he considered a grandfather, this thought triggered a memory of the note from the future. 'Dumbledore will die next year if we don't change it!' Harry was very aware of who the letter writer was and knew that they considered Professor Dumbledore a grandfather just as much as he did.

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him.**

"Amusing was it, that I sat there on that wall all day?" asked McGonagall coldly.

"Ha!" the twins cried in triumph. "It was you!"

**He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

"Ooh, what's that Professor?" asked Bill

"A spectacular device of my own making!" said Dumbledore quite cheerfully.

"Wow, Professor, how did you-"

"May I continue?" asked Godric.

**He clicked it again the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer,**

Dumbledore blinked at the name. "It's called a Deluminator." he said with a pout.

**until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

"Imagine if that wasn't McGonagall," said Fred.

"I reckon he'd feel like a right idio-"

"George!" reprimanded Mrs. Weasley.

"**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Woo!" cheered the twins.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun.**

The twins chuckled admiringly. "Oh, Professor!" they said.

**She looked distinctly ruffled.**

The twins' smiles vanished. McGonagall was a master at keeping her composure. Anything that made her look 'ruffled' couldn't be good.

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

"Psh!" cried George.

"Even Malfoy knew it was you, Professor!" said Fred.

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

A few laughed at this.

**"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"How ever did you manage it?" asked Pomona.

McGonagall shrugged. "It was necessary."

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

"Uh-oh." muttered the twins.

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls shooting stars Well, they're not completely stupid.**

Harry laughed, quite loudly.

"Mr. Potter." said Snape coldly. Harry inwardly groaned. "If you make one more noise to interrupt the reading, I am afraid I am going to have to give you a detention."

Harry opened his mouth in outrage, ready to protest, but it was Hermione who spoke. "But he's hardly said anything at all!" she said, glaring.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, for your cheek Miss Granger!" snapped Snape.

"Severus, there will be no points taken and no detentions given to anybody throughout the reading, besides as it is the summer vacation the point system is not working at this point in time." said Dumbledore very sternly.

Harry looked to Hermione and mouthed 'Thanks' gratefully. She nodded, smiling. 'Harry really is one of the nicest people I know,' she thought. Then frowned, 'and he doesn't deserve any of this.'

**They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

**"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"You got that right." grumbled Mr. Weasley under his breath.

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

"The muggles were too stupid to notice though," said Malfoy, "So it really wasn't an issue."

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"A what?" asked Ron.

**"A what?"**

The twins sniggered.

"Ickle Ronniekins thinks like McGonagall!"

**"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

Arthur Weasley looked excited.

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops.**

"Too right it wasn't." she said.

"Professor!" called Fred.

"You do know" added George

"That you're talking to a book?" they finished together.

McGonagall flushed.

**"As I said, even if You-Know-Who has gone "**

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."**

The entire room seemed to flinch.

"Oh come on people!" said Harry, irritated. "It's just a name!"

"Well said Harry." said Lupin, smiling. Sirius grinned and Harry smiled back. 'I can't stay mad at Sirius forever.'

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

"Well said Albus." said Lupin again.

**"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."**

"Yes!" cried the twins. "She said the name!"

"A feat your dear brother has yet to achieve." said Harry, smirking at Ron. "He still can't stand hearing Voldemort."

"OI!" he said, but smiled anyway. Nobody could get mad at Harry. Well fourth year he shuddered; he regretted that more than any other moment in his life. 'What will mum say when she finds out I ditched Harry in fourth year?'

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

**"Only because you're too well noble to use them."**

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

Harry looked down, blushing. 'It was my Mum that did it not me.' He thought.

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true.**

"I didn't want to." she muttered.

**Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and _decided _****not _to_ answer.**

A few people, like Malfoy, rolled their eyes.

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are are that they're dead."**

Harry stiffened, and Helga and Rowena grabbed his hands. Salazar patted him on the back. Sirius whined loudly, and Lupin's eyes looked oddly shiny.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**"Lily and James I can't believe it I didn't want to believe it Oh, Albus "**

McGonagall shook her head. "I still can't believe it" she muttered. Pomona comforted her; she knew how hard it had been for McGonagall when she lost her star student.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know I know he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry.**

**But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke and that's why he's gone."**

Harry could feel the eyes of everyone in the room on him, but he kept his head down, looking at nothing but his hands.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**"It's it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done all the people he's killed he couldn't kill a little boy?**

**It's just astounding of all the things to stop him but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

"I think we'd all like to know that!" said Charlie.

**"We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

"Your guesses are generally pretty good." said Harry quietly, the whole room heard him though and unless they already knew the looked at either Dumbledore or Harry questioningly. But neither male said anything. 'Besides,' continued Harry in his head. 'you already knew."

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge.**

**It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

Hagrid blushed. He hadn't meant to be late, it took a long time to find baby Harry and get away unseen.

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

'Not exactly,' thought Harry to himself, unknowingly broadcasting his thoughts to his best friends from the past. 'there was still my cousin/nephew Tom. Dumbles wouldn't let me live with him though, even if either one of them knew. All my other family was dead at that time though, the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Slytherins, Hufflepuffs and Evans would have died out along with my adopted family the Phoenicia's.'

**"You don't mean you can't mean the people who live here?"**

**cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four.**

**"Dumbledore you can't.**

"Please listen to her Professor!" groaned Harry, knowing that it was useless this was in the past.

The twins didn't bother to tell Harry that he was talking to a book. He looked much too upset.

**I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

**"It's the best place for him,"**

Ron laughed humorlessly. 'Maybe that will be another good thing to come out of reading these books. Maybe Dumbledore would see how bad the Dursleys were to Harry, and finally agree to let him live somewhere else! Maybe the Burrow with his family or at Grimould Place with Sirius. He knew how much Harry loved Sirius'

People looked nervously at Ron. 'What in the world is he chuckling at?' was the thought that was going through everyone's head.

**said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"Honestly Dumbledore!" cried Mrs. Weasley. "Do you really think a letter could explain everything?"

"It doesn't matter." said Harry tonelessly. "I never got it anyway."

"You never- but how" Mrs. Weasley looked furious.

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter?**

"See, Minerva agrees with me!" cried Mrs. Weasley.

**These people will never understand him! He'll be famous a legend I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future**

Harry groaned rather loudly. "Please tell me there is not!"

Dumbledore managed a small smile. "No, it's not."

"Thank God!" he cried.

Lots of people were looking at him curiously, especially Malfoy and Snape.

**- there will be books written about Harry every child in our world will know his name!"**

"Stupid books." Harry said quietly.

**"Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

"I understand your logic there, Dumbledore, but why couldn't he do that somewhere else?" asked Lupin.

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

Fred and George chuckled, Harry' expression was so funny!

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

**"You think it wise to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid with my life." said Harry firmly and loudly. Hagrid beamed.

**"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

Harry smiled at Dumbledore, who smiled yet carefully avoided his gaze. Harry sighed, he had nearly forgotten that Dumbledore wasn't making eye contact with him.

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to what was that?"**

"What is it?" cried Mrs. Weasley, worried.

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

Sirius whooped. Harry smiled at his Godfather.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it.**

**He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"Sounds about right." said Ron, smiling broadly. Harry mock glared at him. 'Ron is a great friend, but I am still annoyed with the lack of informative letters this summer, so I will semi ignore Ron, Sirius, and Hermione.'

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

Sirius was now running in circles flailing his arms wildly. Harry, Ron, and Hermione laughed, it was good to see Sirius at ease like this. Snape just sneered.

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

"Aww!" the girls cooed. Harry felt himself go red.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep.**

Ron chuckled, earning a glare from Harry.

**Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

Harry frowned. That scar was nothing but painful.

**"Is that where ?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

Harry sat up straighter. "Could you?" he asked hopefully.

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't.**

"Oh" said Harry, looking thoroughly disappointed.

**Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.**

People stared. "Are you being serious?" asked one of the teachers.

Sirius said " Of course not, I'm Sirius!" and Harry had to stifle a laugh.

**Well give him here, Hagrid we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

Harry smiled at Hagrid, who beamed back. Sirius looked offended, which confused some people.

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

Harry shuddered, thinking only of his Aunt and Uncle. Ron and Hermione exchanged worried looks.

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it Lily an' James dead an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles "**

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two.**

"Please tell me I heard that wrong!" said Mrs. Weasley faintly. "You left him on THE DOORSTEP?"

"It's fine, Mrs. Weasley, really, I-

"It is NOT fine, Harry, it was October, you could have frozen!"

Lupin frowned. "And Death Eaters were still at large."

This did not help improve Mrs. Weasley's mood.

**For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

The entire room shuddered as one.

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

The Sirius' & twins' jaws dropped. Professor McGonagall crying? It just couldn't be it was even crazier than the absurd notion of a sleeping McGonagall.

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured.**

"Cause man, am I going to need it." said Harry. Mrs. Weasley frowned at this.

**He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

"You didn't even put spells on him to prevent him from getting a cold?" shouted Sirius. Who said he didn't care about his Godson?

Harry frowned at this, 'How had he not gotten a cold? Maybe it was just luck or-' "One moment please I need to do something." The rest of the room watched in confusion as Harry looked deep in thought, he was concentrating on his destination, clapped his hands and DISAPPEARED! He reappeared a split second later, only Dumbledore and the two Marauders noticed that Harry had disappeared and reappeared the same way they and the others in the room had before they had started to read. "Okay you can continue Ric." said Harry

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream**

"What a horrible way to wake up." said Tonks.

**as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley.**

The Golden Trio, minus Harry, glared at the book.

**He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices"To Harry Potter the boy who lived!"**

"Well!" said the twins happily. "That went well!"

"Who wants to read next?" asked Godric.

Fred and George were out of their seats before Hermione could raise her hand, which is quite the feat. After retrieving the book, the sat back down at the table and read, **"The Vanishing Glass".**

* * *

**Please Review! :~) If anything is confusing or you have a question pleas feel free to ask I will answer to the best of my abilities.**


	4. The Vanishing Glass

I DO NOT OWN THIS I, LIKE MANY OF YOU, WISH I DID.

**Book = bold**

People in room = regular

**_Is what I added to the book = bold italics_**

Letters sent from the future = underlined

**"mental speak" = bold and in qoutes( I can not get it to underline so it will be Bolded and in Quotes)**

'thoughts' = regular with apostrophes on both sides

~parseltounge~ = well it looks like that

* * *

The Vanishing Glass

"**The Vanishing Glass**" Read Fred, after the twins had a furious fight over who would read first Fred beat George so he, got to read first.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets**

"What is a beach ball?" asked Malfoy, before he could stop himself, and Ron at the same time. When they realized that they had said the same thing they immediately looked disgusted. The other children laughed at the two boys faces.

— **but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother.**

**The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"Why is that Mr. Potter?" asked Professor McGonagall angrily.

"I am allergic to photos." replied Harry with a perfectly straight face. Everyone but Dumbledore, and the founders believed it.

'Why would Harry lie, or at the very least fib, about why there were no photos of him at his Aunt's house?' Dumbledore wondered to himself.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

"**Up! Get up! Now!" **

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again. **

"**Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"You remembered that?" asked Tonks surprised.

"Err...yeah." replied Harry, 'I didn't realize that that was real though, interesting.'

**His aunt was back outside the door. **

"**Are you up yet?" she demanded. **

"**Nearly," said Harry. **

"**Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"They made you cook?" asked an angry Mrs. Weasley.

"Yes Mrs. Weasley, but there is a reason for that." replied Harry. Ron and Hermione snorted, they were trying not to laugh, when Hermione found out in first year that Harry cooked for his family she had wanted to know why so she asked Ron if he knew and when she found out that Ron had no idea why they went to ask Harry, the story was really quite funny.

"What is the reason then Potter?" asked Mad-Eye gruffly.

"Uh.. I will tell you later we have a book to read." Harry replied.

**Harry groaned. **

"**What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"**Nothing, nothing…" **

**Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten?**

"I was trying to forget it." Harry said to himself, unfortunately the whole room heard and most of it's occupants gave him confused looks, which he expertly ignored.

** Harry got slowly out of bed, _careful of the bruises on his back from the tree accident the day before,_ and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider**

Ron shuddered, this made the twins laugh until they saw the glare that their mother was giving them, it was Molly-Glare-#5 Stop-Laughing-Now-or-Be-In-BIG-Trouble.

**off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them,**

"What does that have to do with anything?" Harry was asked by Professor Sprout. The other people in the room, except the four people from the past; whom already knew, were wondering the same thing.

Harry just grimaced and mentally prepared for the coming explosion.

** and that was where he slept_, and had slept since his parents had died_.**

**"Silence, who knew it could be so LOUD"** thought Godric to the others he shared a mental connection with; Harry, Salazar, Rowena and, Helga. They agreed, no sooner had they thought this when the room exploded in a cacophony of noise. It was so loud you could only hear bits and pieces of what was being said.

"You said he was safe Albus!" could be heard from the staff of Hogwarts except Severus who was in shock.

"MY GODSON SLEPT IN A BLOODY CUPBOARD! I AM GOING TO KILL THOSE BASTARD DURSLEYS!" Sirius was _very_ loud in his protest.

Remus just growled he was so angry, it seemed to be very hard for him to hold back his inner-wolf.

"WHAT?" shouted a surprised Malfoy.

The twins could be seen with Ginny talking over a piece of parchment and from the mutters that could be heard nobody wanted to be the Dursleys when the books were finished. Everyone in the room that knew Harry agreed to talk to him when they had a break. Tonks noticed that the four founders did not act when they heard the Cupboard revlation.

(1 HOUR LATER)

When the occupants of the room calmed down Tonks voiced her question.

"Why didn't you four react when you found out he lived in a cupboard?"

"We already knew." answered the quartet together. This just made the rest of the room, minus Harry, confused. 'How does Harry/Potter know the founders?' wondered the people in the room.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise — unless of course it involved punching somebody.**

**Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast**.

"Don't we know it!" said Ron, Hermione, Helga, Godric, Rowena, and Helga at the same time. Then they laughed when they realized they had all said the same thing.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. **

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.**

**He wore round glasses ****held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

Sirius and Remus growled.

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it. **

"**In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.**

"WHAT?" cried everyone in the room, even Snape and Malfoy, but nobody noticed except Harry. Who then wondered if the two Slytherins were really good after all.

"**And don't ask questions."**

**Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. _There were many rules at the Dursleys, Harry even made a list once for the fun of it when he was_ _six._**

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. **

"**Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place. **

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

"Good one Harry." said the twins.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room_, he almost knocked a present on the ground- which could have been disasterous_. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell. **

"**Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"Even I don't get that many!" exclaimed Malfoy, Harry believed him but Ron was skeptical.

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy." **

"**All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, Popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"**

"Dear Merlin he can't even count!" shouted Professor Sprout.

"**Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"**Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then." **

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. **

"**Little tyke ****wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"Don't encourage him!" exclaimed Flitwick.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. **

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried. **

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him."**

**She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"His name is Hadrian!" shouted Rowena and Helga. The rest of the room who did not know him by that name looked questioningly at Harry and the other four.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"Is there something wrong with cats Mr. Potter?" asked Professer McGonagall dangerously.

"No." answered Harry after he finished gulping.

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. **

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

"He has a name!" shouted Ginny, Hermione and Mrs. Weasley. Harry blushed.

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

Snape began to feel guilty and repulsed for thinking the same thing as Potter's relatives.

_**This was alright with Harry, he found out alot this way.**_

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?" **

**"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia. **

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon. **

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled. **

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening. _'I wouldn't blow up the house only Bas would do something like that.'_**

Harry growled, loudly. Remus was suprised at how realistic it sounded. The rest of the room was surprised when Harry growled and the founders glared at the book.

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…" **

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…" **

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted. **

**"Dinky Duddydums,**

"Dinky Duddydums?" asked Malfoy.

"They get worse, or better, depends on how you think about it." answered Harry.

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

How old is he?" asked Tonks.

"He is a month older than I am." replied Harry.

**"I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms. **

**Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. **

**Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once. **

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"If they did that.." began Dumbledore dangerously but only Harry heard him.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…" **

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did. The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

"Are you a metamorphagus Harry?" asked Tonks.

"What's that?" questioned Harry back.

"Can you change your appearance at will?" revised Tonks.

Harry morphed into a replica of his cousin as an answer.

"Yep, we will have to talk later."

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly. Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).**

"Gross!" shouted Neville. The room's occupants jumped, they had forgotton Neville was in the room.

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. **

**Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished. **

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"You apperated!" shouted the room. (AN: you know what I mean.)

"Um what's that?" asked Harry.

"Did you feel like you were being pulled through a very thin tube?" clarified Snape.

"No, I think I may have flown."

"Either way it is very powerful accidental magic Harry." said Bill. Snape thought to himself, 'Maybe Harry is more like his mother than I thought. Wait when did Potter become Harry?'

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trashcans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump. **

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, _the local orphanage,_ or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

"Why were you at the local orphanage Harry?" asked Dumbledore startled. He was so startled that he forgot he was avoiding eye contact with Harry.

"I can tell you later." replied Harry, relieved that Dumbledore was looking at him.

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.**

**"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them. **

**"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying." **

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" **

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

"Brats!" shouted Malfoy.

**"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream." **

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas. **

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. **

**It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time_,_ _the last one was when little Marki got away from the abuse at the Dursley's house_.**

"Who is 'little Marki'?" asked Dumbledore.

"I will tell you later."

** He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.**

Snape glared at the book but no one noticed through their own anger.

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. **

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep. **

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils. **

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. **

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on. **

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away. **

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's. **

**It winked.**

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too. **

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: **

**"I get that all the time." **

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying." **

**The snake nodded vigorously. **

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked. **

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it. **

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil. **

**"Was it nice there?" **

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"**

"You're talking to a snake about Brazil?" asked Malfoy.

"Yep!" Answered Harry chirpily.

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" **

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could. **

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. **

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror. Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. **

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."**

"So this is the snake you told us about!" chorused Ron and Hermione.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock. **

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?" **

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg_, Harry wished_, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"Noooo!"

"Really Sirius?" asked an exasperated Remus.

"Well, yeah. Now Harry is gonna get into trouble."

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"Don't drink infront of children!" cried Mrs. Weasley and Helga.

"When was the first time you had a drink El, you were 8 were you not?" asked Salazar.

"Uhhh...shut up or I will tell Adrian your secret." replied a blushing Helga.

"What secret?" questioned Harry.

"Nothing!" Salazar gulped, Adrian was SCARY when he glared. The rest of the room was confused.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. **

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. **

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.**

**He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; **

**the Dursleys were his only family_, his only family that was over the age of five anyway_. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. **

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**


	5. BOOM!

I DO NOT OWN THIS I, LIKE MANY OF YOU, WISH I DID.

**Book = bold**

People in room = regular

**_Is what I added to the book = bold italics_**

Letters sent from the future = underlined

**"mental speak" = bold and in quotes( I can not get it to underline so it will be Bolded and in Quotes)**

'thoughts' = regular with apostrophes on both sides

~parseltounge~ = well it looks like that

* * *

The Letters From No One

**The Letters From No One **read George.

"How can you get letters from no one, Potter?" asked Malfoy with a sneer. Harry didn't bother to answer he just glared at Malfoy.

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started**

There were many cries of outrage about this. When the noise settled down Dumbledore asked, afraid of the answer,

"What about school?"

"I picked up a mysterious illness." :Harry

**and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"How rude!": Mrs. Weasley

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting.**

Remus and Sirius growled at this. Snape and Malfoy looked shocked, but in the case of Snape quickly put his mask back up. Dumbledore looked worried.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

**They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

There were cries of outrage at this. Harry simply smirked.

**"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it — it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"Good one Harry" said Sirius laughing, Fred, George, Godric, Salazar and Ron were rolling on the floor laughing.

"I still don't think he has worked it out yet.": Harry

When everyone finally calmed down George picked up the book and continued reading.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"What a waste of good cake!" : Ron

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water. **

**"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question. **

**"Your new school uniform," she said. **

**Harry looked in the bowl again. **

**"Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

"That is all Lily right there." said Sirius at the same moment Salazar said;

"Channeling your Aunt, 'Rian?"

They looked at each other and blinked. Dumbledore stored away what Salazar had said on his mental list.

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. **

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High — like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat. **

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

"The Sea Cow is making the brat do something?" This surprisingly came from the mouth of Severus Snape. When he realized that he had spoken aloud he glared at everyone.

**"Make Harry get it." **

**"Get the mail, Harry."**

"He said my name?!" :Harry was astonished.

**"Make Dudley get it." **

**"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and — **_**a letter for Harry**_**.**

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives_; none that would write to him at least_ — he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake: **

_**Mr. H. Potter **_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs 4 Privet Drive **_

_**Little Whinging **_

_**Surrey**_

"They didn't see the address?": Helga

"The sending of the letters is all done by magic. We should at least scan the letters before the are sent off though." replied Professor Flitwick.

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. **

**There was no stamp.**

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.**

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke. **

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. **

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard. **

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk…" **

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon. **

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back. **

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.**

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped. **

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise. **

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness — Vernon!"**

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick. **

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

**"**_**I**_** want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's **_**mine**_**."**

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. **

**Harry didn't move. **

**"I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

**"Let **_**me**_** see it!" demanded Dudley. **

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won,**

**so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor. **

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address — how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?" **

**"Watching — spying — might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want —" **

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen. **

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer… Yes, that's best… we won't do anything…" **

**"But —" **

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard. **

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. **

**"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. **

**"I have burned it." **

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it." **

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. **

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful. **

**"Er — yes, Harry — about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking… you're really getting a bit big for it… we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom. **

**"Why?" said Harry. **

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now." **

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it.**

**Other shelves were full of books.**

**They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't want him in there… I need that room… make him get out…"**

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. **

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. **

**They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive —'"**

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand. **

**"Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley — go — just go." **

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door — **

**"AAAAARRRGH!" **

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat — something **_**alive**_**!**

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink. **

**"I want —" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. **

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. **

**He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up." **

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon." **

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"Sadly it worked better than the hammer." said Harry making the rest of the room laugh or smirk. Even Slytherins could appreciate a mad muggle.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom. **

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two-dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy. **

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today —" **

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets.**

**The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one —**

**"Out! OUT!" **

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor. **

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" **

**He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue.**

**Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. **

**"Shake 'em off… shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering…**

"What were you wondering Adrian?" Harry was asked by Rowena.

"What you guys were up to and if I would be visiting as usual. As well as if Marki was okay." answered Harry.

While this just confused every one except the four from the past, those four nodded as if it made perfect sense.

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day.**

**They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table. **

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." **

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address: **

_**Mr. H. Potter **_

_**Room 17 **_

_**Railview Hotel **_

_**Cokeworth **_

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room. **

**"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage. **

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

"He has to be mad if the baby whale admits it." sneered Malfoy. His fellow soon-to-be fifth years stared at him in shock as did the Twins and Ginny.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. **

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled.**

Snape shuddered. Sirius smirked.

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a **_**television**_**." **

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday — and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television — then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.**

"Happy birthday 'Rian!/Harry" chorused the twins, Sirius, Ron, and Godric and Salazar.

"This already happened, you are also talking to a book." replied an exasperated Snape.

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun — last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

**Still, you weren't eleven every day. **

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought. **

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there. **

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!" **

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!" **

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house. **

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. **

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas.**

"Thats not rations!" cried McGonagall.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up. **

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. **

**Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all. **

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

The adults in the room, who knew and liked Harry, looked sad. Indeed; Molly could be seen wiping her eyes with a hankercheif that had appeared suddenly on her lap.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now. **

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

"Are you always this pessimistic Harry?" asked Remus. He didn't get an answer.

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow. **

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea? **

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten… nine — maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him**

— **three… two… one… **

**BOOM. **

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"That is the end of the chapter. Who wants to read next?"

"I would."

"Bill here you go." George handed the book to his older brother who had asked to read next.

* * *

AN: I am very sorry about the long wait but the schoolyear has started again and I have less time than a fifth year revising for their O.W.L. Please reveiw.


	6. We meet the Big Friendly (half) Giant

I DO NOT OWN THIS I, LIKE MANY OF YOU, WISH I DID. I also do not own the _BFG _it is owned by Roald Dahl

**Book = bold**

People in room = regular

_**Is what I added to the book = bold italics**_

Letters sent from the future = underlined

**"Mental speech" = bold and in quotes (I cannot get it to underline so it will be Bolded and in Quotes)**

'Thoughts' = regular with apostrophes on both sides

~parseltounge~ = well it looks like that

AN: according to 's spell check Dumbledore should be Tumbledown; Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Tumbledown, it doesn't have quite the same ring to it. What do you think? It also says that 'Whole' and 'Inform' are both to complicated for us readers to figure out. *Smirk*

* * *

Bill took the book from his brother, opened it to the correct page and began to read.

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS**

**BOOM. **

Bill received an annoyed look from Remus because he had yelled, Remus was ignored.

**They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

"Can he say anything intelligently?" asked a smirking Ginny. This comment was followed by laughs and chuckles from the other occupants of the room.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"**

**There was a pause.**

"I was think'n; aren't we all." commented Hagrid blandly.

** Then -**

**SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."**

"Only Hagrid." this was fondly said by many of the people in the room.

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

**"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

"On'y half, Harry.":Hagrid. Harry smiled.

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mum's eyes."**

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

"**I demand that you leave at once, sit!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

**"Anyway - Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.**

"Thanks for the cake, by the way, Hagrid.":Harry Hagrid just smiled and nodded.

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

**The giant chuckled.**

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

"Sorry 'bout that Harry." Hagrid said realizing that his handshake may have hurt Harry.

"That's alright Hagrid." :Harry.

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together."I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"Hagrid!" shouted Molly and Minerva exasperated.

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shrivelled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there.**

**It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from**

"It was just Butterbeer." said Hagrid before Molly could even open her mouth.

**before starting to make tea. **

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. **

**Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

**The giant chuckled darkly. "Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' ****worry."**

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

**"Er - no," said Harry.**

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

"Why'd you apologize?":Remus

"Well if I didn't it would have been rude.":Harry

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents ****learned it all?"**

**"All what?" asked Harry.**

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"**

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

**"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."**

"Really Harry?" teased Hermione, Harry just glared at her.

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

**"What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

"Bill, could you please stop yelling? It's hurting my ears.":Remus

"Sorry, Remus.":Bill

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.**

"Isn't that a spell?" asked Ginny.

Harry smirked and replied, "Yes, you should have seen his face when I told him that."

**"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

**"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

**"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

**"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.**

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice. "Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

**"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry - yet a wizard."**

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

**"I'm a what?" gasped Harry.**

"A snuffleupagus, Harry." said Hermione. This confused everyone who had never seen Sesame Street.

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald-green to **

**Mr. H. Potter, **

**The Floor, **

**Hut-on-the-Rock, **

**The Sea. **

**He pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall,**

**Deputy Headmistress**

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. **

**After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"Why was that the first question you asked?" asked Pomona Sprout.

"Well I had to send my reply by July thirty-first, and being as it was July thirty-first already, I needed a way to tell Hagrid the date without being rude. Seeing as I was not supposed to know about owls sending letters I figured I could ask about it." answered Harry. Everyone else nodded, that made sense, though they did wonder what he meant by not being supposed to know about owls and their capabilities.

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill, and a roll of parchment.**

**With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Given Harry his letter.**

**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well.**

**Hagrid**

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

"Did you catch any May-flies, 'Rian?" asked Godric teasingly.

Harry glared at him and replied, "Watch out, I may just happen upon a tribe of skunks." Godric gulped and decided to stop teasing his friend. Seeing this Harry smirked, the other occupants of the room wondered what that was about, especially Sirius, Ron, Hermione, Draco and a few others who operated under the impression that the founder of Gryffindor house feared nothing.

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said.**

**Hagrid grunted.**

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

**"A what?" said Harry, interested_,__ after__all, they never called anyone a muggle back home_.**

Another thing that Dumbledore added to his mental list.

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

**"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? ****Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school-and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak!**

There were many cries of outrage at this the loudest surprising most of the room's occupants, they had expected Sirius, Remus, Minerva and Hagrid to yell about the comment in the book, but not anyone else.

"OUR AUNT LILY WAS NOT A FREAK!" courtesy of the four founders. This was something else Albus added to his growing list.

"Lily WASN'T a FREAK!" :Remus, Sirius and Severus. Severus's shout was, of course, hidden by Remus and Sirius', much to his relief.

**But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

The occupants of the room unknowingly copied Hagrid's reaction from when Harry was eleven.

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! **

**Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!" **

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone 3 s gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"**

**"Who?"**

"Well you got the first third correct, Potter." said Malfoy.

**"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

**"Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. ****As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. ****His name was..."**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

"You'll never get Hagrid to say it!" said Neville.

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah -can't spell it. All right - Voldemort. " Hagrid shuddered.**

"Congradulations Harry, not even I can get Hagrid to say Voldemort's name." said Dumbledore. Harry smiled, but he was still sad that Dumbledore wasn't looking at him.

**"Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, ****didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. ****Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! ****Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way.**

**All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old.**

**He came ter yer house an' - an' -"**

"Very nice monolouge right there, Mr. Hagrid, you'd make a good teacher." said Rowena.

Hagrid blushed and said "Just call me Hagrid."

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway..."**

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age **

**the McKinnons,**

Everyone who had known the McKinnons bowed their heads.

**the Bones,**

**the Prewetts**

All the Weasley's faces had tears rolling down them. Harry patted Ron on the back comfortingly.

**an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

"You remember that?!" asked Pomona Sprout alarmed. Harry simply nodded his head.

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.**

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."**

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured**

Cue the many growls and snarls, one would think that there was a large pack of ravaging animals in the room. Dumbledore's face was full of worry, dread and anger. He would have to talk to Harry soon.

**- and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion –**

More growls and cries of outrage, Sirius even contemplated becoming a Death Eater just so he could torture Mr. Dursley.

**asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"**

Even more cries of outrage, Sirius decided to ask Remus if he would like to pay a visit to the Dursley's house on the night of a full moon.

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley -I'm warning you - one more word... "**

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

"Turning into Hermione, mate?" asked Neville and Ron while smiling. Hermione mock-glared at them, while Harry simply decided that revenge was in order soon.

**"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?**

**"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don~ reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all ****right."**

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.**

Snape and Malfoy were surprised, but hid it quickly.

** A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and ****Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

"Magic doesn't work that way pup." said Sirius.

"That is true, but there is one problem with what I thought back then, I have never defeated Dumbledore." replied Harry with a twinkle in his reminiscent of Dumbledore.

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa ****constrictor on him?**

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and -"**

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter' s son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-"**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!"** **yelled Uncle Vernon.**

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS- DUMBLEDORE IN- FRONT- OF- ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley - there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

Cue laughing teens, Marauders, and a stern look from Professor McGonagall.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard. "Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."**

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

**"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." **

**"Why were you expelled?"**

"You'll never find out." stated Sirius and Remus.

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."**

"Why'd you have dormice in your pockets?" asked Charlie.

"Ter feed the owl o' course." answered Hagrid.

"That was the end of the chapter, who wants to read next?" asked Bill holding up the book.

"I'll read next, if no one minds?" said Hermione. Bill handed her the book since no one objected.

* * *

So that was the end of the chapter. I have a questions for you;

1) I had someone tell me that I should write a prequel, I will write one, I just don't know if I should write it while writing this fanfic, in which case I will update the prequel as information is mentioned in this story, or write it after I finish a) all the read the books in my series or b) after I finish the first read the books in my series.

Questions, comments, concerns? Tell me in your review!

P.S: I have decided that they will eat after the Sorting chapter, this is also when we will get more background on Harry and the Founders.


	7. All Die In Agony In Diagon Alley

I DO NOT OWN THIS I, LIKE MANY OF YOU, WISH I DID.

**Book = bold**

People in room = regular

**_Is what I added to the book = bold italics_**

Letters sent from the future = underlined

**"mental speak" = bold and in quotes (I can not get it to underline so it will be Bolded and in Quotes)**

'thoughts' = regular with apostrophes on both sides

~parseltounge~ = well it looks like that

Warning: mentions of rape in this chapter.

* * *

Hermione took the book from Bill and began to read.

**CHAPTER FIVE**

**DIAGON ALLEY**

"Yippie! We get to hear about your trip to Diagon Alley!" shouted Sirius.

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.**

**"It was a dream, he told himself firmly."I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."**

There were many growls from certain people who had an alter-ego in the canine family.

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.**

**And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door, Harry thought, his heart sinking. But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.**

**Tap. Tap. Tap.**

**"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."**

**He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

**Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him. He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. **

**The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

**"Don't do that."**

**Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.**

**"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl**

**"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.**

**"What?"**

**"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."**

**Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets **

"He has approximately 116 pockets." stated Harry in a matter-of-fact tone. This caused many jaws to drop.

**bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags... finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.**

**"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.**

**"Knuts?"**

**"The little bronze ones."**

**Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window.**

**Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched.**

"If you were going to get up, why did you get Harry to pay the owl, Hagrid?" asked Sirius, curiously.

Before Hagrid could answer, Remus said "Probably to let him recognise our currency." Hagrid nodded an affirmative at that.

"Oh, that makes sense."

**"Best be Off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."**

**Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

"Oh, come on, Harry. Don't be so pessimistic. Keep the happy balloon alive and floating!" said Fred, so sincerely, that most people couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

**"Um - Hagrid?"**

**"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

**"I haven't got any money - and you heard Uncle Vernon last night ... he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

**"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"**

**"But if their house was destroyed -"**

**"They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold - an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."**

**"Wizards have banks?"**

"Of course! Why wouldn't we?" asked Professor Sprout.

**"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."**

**Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding.**

**"Goblins?"**

**"Yeah - so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. **

"That really is good advice." said Arthur.

**Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you gettin' things from Gringotts -knows he can trust me, see. Got everythin'? Come on, then."**

**Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

**"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.**

**"Flew," said Hagrid.**

"_Flew!"_

**"Flew?"**

Everyone laughed at this.

**"Yeah - but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

**They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

"It is pretty difficult. I can't see you riding a broom Hagrid, so any ideas?" questioned Remus

Hagrid just shrugged and smiled mysteriously.

"Maybe he flew my bike?"asked Sirius.

"But it'd still be there, though."

"Huh. Okay I give up."

"I'll keep thinking about it."

**"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter - er - speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

McGonagall sighed "Hagrid!" exasperatedly, but the effect was somewhat lessened, by the fact that everyone else was openly laughing at this.

**"Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land.**

**"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.**

**"Spells - enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the highsecurity vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way - Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

**Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.**

"I wouldn' o' minded Harry." said Hagrid, "Yer should jus' ask."

**"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.**

**"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.**

**"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job.**

**Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

**"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"**

"Nothing good, thats for sure." said Ginny.

~What is a Ministry of Magic?~ asked Salazar in parsletounge. The hissing made many of the people in the room jump.

~I'll tell you later.~ answered Harry in the same way. Hermione continued to read.

**"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

**"Why?"**

**"Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."**

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.**

**Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as all as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"**

**"Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"**

**"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."**

**"You'd like one?"**

**"Wanted one ever since I was a kid - here we go."**

**They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," **

"It's not that hard. The numbers are on the bills." said Tonks.

**as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets. People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.**

"It was a sweater fer Fluffy." explained Hagrid.

"Why yellow though?" asked Helga.

"Fluffy liked Hufflepuffs." replied Hagrid.

(A.N: Make of that what you will, it would certainly explain the lack of many people whose names are never mentioned again who were sorted along with Harry.)

**"Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.**

**"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."**

**Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**UNIFORM**

**First-year students will require:**

**1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)**

**2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**

"Does any one ever use it?" asked Snape

"I have learned that it makes a very good fire retardent." stated Harry mysteriously.

**3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**

**4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)**

**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**

**COURSE BOOKS**

**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**

**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk**

**A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot**

**Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling**

**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch**

**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore**

**Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger**

**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander**

**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble**

**OTHER EQUIPMENT**

**wand cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) set**

**glass or crystal phials**

**telescope set**

**brass scales**

**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**

**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**

Malfoy muttered something about Saint Potter.

**"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.**

**"If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.**

**Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.**

**"I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. **

**This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? ****Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? ****Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up? **

**If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.**

Hagrid just beamed at that.

"Hullflepuff instinct, 'Rian" said Helga.

"Well I didn't know that back then, did I?" replied Harry. This caused anyone of the current time period to be confused and Dumbledore to add another thing to his list.

**"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it. **

**Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside. For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a ****glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"**

**"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.**

**"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this - can this be -?"**

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.**

"Now that's a first" chuckled Kingsley.

**"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter... what an honor."**

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes. "Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."**

**Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming. Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

**"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

**"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

**"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

**"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!" **

**Harry shook hands again and again - Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

**"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

**"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p- pleased I am to meet you."**

**"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

**"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," ****muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" **

**He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.**

Moody decided that there was something definetly fishy about that guy.

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.**

**"Must get on - lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."**

**Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.**

"Sounds like a place where someone would be raped." said Helga, right be fore she cringed and continued quickly "Sorry 'Rian!"

"Thats alright." Harry replied, in a quieter tone he said "I'll kill him." Only Remus, Dumbledore, and the four Founders heard. It worried both Remus and Dumbledore.

**Hagrid grinned at Harry.**

**"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh - mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

**"Is he always that nervous?"**

**"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag - never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject now, ****where's me umbrella?"**

**Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming.**

**Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can.**

**"Three up... two across he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry."**

**He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.**

**"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

**He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.**

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring, Collapsible, ****said a sign hanging over them.**

'Harry, no Potter, actually noticed that first?' thought Snape.

"**Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."**

**Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as ****they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad..."**

Molly blushed, it had been her that said that.

**A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy.**

**Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. **

**"Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand - fastest ever -"**

Harry smiled sadly, he loved his Firebolt but he still missed his Nimbus.

**There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...**

**"Gringotts," said Hagrid.**

**They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was -**

"Why do they wear Gryffindor house colors?" asked Godric. Everyone shrugged, none of them knew the answer.

** "Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

**Enter, stranger, but take heed**

**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**

**For those who take, but do not earn,**

**Must pay most dearly in their turn.**

**So if you seek beneath our floors**

**A treasure that was never yours,**

**Thief, you have been warned, beware**

**Of finding more than treasure there.**

**"Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.**

"'Rian probally attempts it one day." said Godric, the other three founders were nodding their heads in agreement.

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses.**

**There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.**

**"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."**

**"You have his key, Sir?"**

**"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

**"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.**

**The goblin looked at it closely. "That seems to be in order."**

**"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

'If you flip the number 13 around the vault number would be 'Rian's date of birth, and the You-Know-What sounds an awful lot like this You-Know-Who person.' thought Rowena.

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

**"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have S\someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

**Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.**

**"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.**

**"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

**Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and were off.**

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible.**

"That's farther than I've ever gotten pup." said Sirius grinning.

** The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late - - they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

**I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

Hermione was about to answer when she saw a slight shake of the head from Harry.

**"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."**

"That's a great answer Hagrid." said Tonks laughing.

**He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.**

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

**"All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

**All Harry's - it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep?**

Dumbledore scowled, the Dursley's were being sent money to help in the care of Harry, it was now obvious to him that they wern't using that money for Harry.

**And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.**

**Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.**

**"The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. ****Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"**

**"One speed only," said Griphook.**

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.**

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

"High security vault." said Moody.

**"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away. "If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through**

**the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

**"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.**

**"About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.**

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least - but at first he thought it was empty. Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask.**

**"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

"You did look rather green Hagrid." said Harry.

**One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life - more money than even Dudley had ever had.**

**"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve. **

"How did you know what the color was Harry?" asked Tonks.

Harry muttered something about cocktail dresses and vain bitches.

**"Hogwarts, dear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact. "**

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him) slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.**

**"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"**

**"Yes," said Harry.**

**"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. **

**He had a bored, drawling voice. **

Said boy was currently sinking lower into his seat.

**"Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.**

Malfoy's face tinged pink.

**"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on.**

**"No," said Harry.**

**"Play Quidditch at all?"**

**"No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

"Balsphemy!" shouted all of the qudditch nuts.

**"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

**"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

**"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"**

**"Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting. _As far as he knew you had to be born a Slytherin or Hufflepuff to be in one of the said houses you didn't get put into them._**

'Yet another thing to add to my list.' thought Dumbledore.

**"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.**

**"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."**

**"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

**"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.**

**"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

**"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.**

**"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"**

**"They're dead," said Harry shortly_, it was true, his two surrogate parents would be dead by now_. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.**

**"Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. ****"But they were our kind, weren't they?"**

Cue angry looks directed at Malfoy.

**"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

"A very diplomatic answer, Mr. Potter." praised Professor Flitwick.

**"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. ****What's your surname, anyway?"**

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.**

**"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.**

**Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).**

You could suddenly hear Ron and Sirius' stomaches growl.

**"What's up?" asked Hagrid.**

**"Nothing," Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

**"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know - not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

**"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's. "-and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in."**

**"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were - he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles - look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

**"So what is Quidditch?"**

**"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like - like football in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch - played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls - sorta hard ter explain the rules."**

**"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

**"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but -"**

**"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff" said Harry gloomily.**

**"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly.**

"Hey!" shouted Helga and Salazar.

** "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin.**

"That is untrue. Pettigrew was a Gryffindor." stated Remus snarling when he said Pettigrew.

"Who is Pettigrew?" asked Godric.

"I'll tell you later." answered Harry.

**You-Know-Who was one."**

**"Vol-, sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"**

**"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

**They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue- Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

**"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

"I'll help!" exclaimed Salazar.

**"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

**Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"),**

**but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).**

**Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.**

**"Just yer wand left - A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."**

**Harry felt himself go red.**

**"You don't have to -"**

**"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at - an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."**

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing.**

Hedwig suddenly appeared in the room and flew down to perch on Harry's knee.

**He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

Harry made a disgusted face at this.

**"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

**A magic wand... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.**

"Everyone else looks foward to it as well." said Mad-Eye.

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.**

"Who's wand is that?" asked Charlie.

"Nobody knows, Ollivander has said many a time that it belonged to either Merlin, someone who goes by the title the Fifth, or the sworn enemy of the Fifth." answered Dumbledore. He noticed that when he talked about the Fifth, the four time travelers and Harry perked up.

** A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

**"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.**

There were low chuckles at this, from everyone except McGonagall and Moody.

"So that's why the chair was broken when I got my wand!" said Ginny with an ah-ha! tone in her voice.

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

**"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.**

**"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."**

**Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.**

There were many nods of agreement from the occupants of the room.

**"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. **

**Well, I say your father favored it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."**

**Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.**

**"And that's where..."**

**Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.**

**"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."**

**He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.**

**"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

**"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

**"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

**"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

**"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.**

**"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

"You notice everything Harry." said Neville.

"Not everything." replied Harry sadly.

**"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"**

**"Er - well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.**

**"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head.**

**As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

**Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.**

**"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave."**

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.**

**"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -"**

**Harry tried - but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.**

**"No, no -here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."**

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

**"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."**

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers.**

"That is the one!" exclaimed Tonks.

**He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. **

**Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious... "**

**He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious... curious..**

**"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?" Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.**

**"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother why, its brother gave you that scar.**

There was a shocked silence.

**Harry swallowed.**

**"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter... After all, He-****Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."**

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.**

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap. **

**Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.**

**"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said. He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.**

**"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life**

"We're hurt 'Rian, really hurt." said the four founders simultanously.

**- and yet - he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words****.**

**"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander... but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry - I mean, the night my parents died."**

**Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

**"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts - I did - still do, 'smatter of fact."**

**Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.**

**"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September - King's Cross - it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me... See yeh soon, Harry."**

"Hagrid, you forgot to tell him how to get onto the platform!" exclaimed Snape.

"Oops, knew I was fergetin somat." said Hagrid sheepishly.

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

"Well that is the end of the chapter, Mr. Weasley do you want to read next?" asked Hermione.

"Yes." said Mr. Weasley, before taking the book from Hermione.

* * *

That was the end of chapter 7 in this fic. review please. Questions, comments, concerns, and spelling/grammar revision is accepted.


	8. A Train Ride and Dragon Bad Faith

I DO NOT OWN THIS I, LIKE MANY OF YOU, WISH I DID.

**Book = bold**

People in room = regular

**_Is what I added to the book = bold italics_**

Letters sent from the future = underlined

**"mental speak" = bold and in quotes (I can not get it to underline so it will be Bolded and in Quotes)**

'thoughts' = regular with apostrophes on both sides

~parseltounge~ = well it looks like that

* * *

Mr. Weasley acquired the book from Hermione and began to read.

**Chapter Seven**

**The Journey From Platform Nine and Three-Quarters**

**Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.**

"When is it ever, Potter?" asked Malfoy sarcastically.

"Somtimes it is, like when Auntie mysteriously grows warts." replied Harry smirking.

**True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him - in fact, they didn't speak to him at all.**

**Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while.**

**Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in A History of Magic. ****His school books were very interesting.**

"Nooooo!" cried Ron, Sirius, and the Twins pitiously.

**He lay on his bed reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice. Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.**

"Thats what I did too," Hermione said.

**On the last day of August he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day, so he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.**

Everybody snorted.

**"Er - Uncle Vernon?"**

**Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.**

**"Er - I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to - to go to Hogwarts."**

**Uncle Vernon grunted again.**

**"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?" Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes.**

"Wow Potter I didn't know that you spoke Troll!" exclaimed Malfoy.

**"Thank you." He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.**

**"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"**

"Illegal," Everybody said. (Excluding the four from the past who also wondered about the Magic carpet, because although not many of their students arrived on Magic carpets, some did.)

**Harry didn't say anything.**

**"Where is this school, anyway?"**

"Scotland!" Some people chorused.

**"I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.**

**"I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read.**

**His aunt and uncle stared.**

**"Platform what."**

**"Nine and three-quarters."**

**"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters."**

**"It's on my ticket."**

**"Barking," said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."**

**"Why are you going to London." Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.**

**"Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."**

"Aww," Sirius whined. "That would be something to talk about though..."

"Would you like some crackers with that whine?" asked Harry.

**Harry woke at five o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep.**

"Five!?" Ron asked.

"I woke up at 5, too," Hermione blushed.

**He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes - he'd change on the train.**

"Good ideas, for once Potter," Snape spat.

Harry blinked. 'Did Snape actually compliment him?'

**He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up. Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry, and they had set off.**

**They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him. Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.**

"Uh oh," Tonks said. "Why is he being nice?"

**"Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine - platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they."**

**He was quite right, of course. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.**

**"Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away.**

"Those DAMNED MUGGLES!" Sirius screamed, and Remus gritted his teeth. 'How could Petunia do that to her own blood?'

"Sirius! Please refrain from cursing! There are children in here," Molly yelled. This brought about annoyed but resigned looks from said 'children'.

**All three of them were laughing. Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was he going to do. He was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig. He'd have to ask someone.**

**He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters. The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose. Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time wasters. Harry was now trying hard not to panic.**

**According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl.**

**Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten.**

"That would be a bad idea," Remus said.

**At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"- packed with Muggles, of course -"**

**Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair. Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him - and they had an owl.**

"Yes, trust them because they have an owl," Salazar said sarcastically. Harry rolled his eyes.

"I was eleven."

**Heart hammering, Harry pushed his cart after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.**

**"Now, what's the platform number?" asked the boys' mother.**

**"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand, "Mum, can't I go... "**

**"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."**

**What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it - but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.**

**"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.**

**"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother. Can't you tell I'm George."**

"Hah, our greatest joke," The Twins said together. "We can never fool Harry though."

**"Sorry, George, dear."**

**"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went.**

**His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone - but how had he done it.**

**Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was almost there - and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.**

**There was nothing else for it.**

**"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.**

**"Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too." She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.**

"Oi!"

**"Yes," said Harry. "The thing is - the thing is, I don't know how to -"**

**"How to get onto the platform." she said kindly, and Harry nodded.**

**"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."**

**"Er - okay," said Harry.**

**He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid.**

**He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble - leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run - the barrier was coming nearer and nearer - he wouldn't be able to stop - the cart was out of control - he was a foot away - he closed his eyes ready for the crash –**

"Always the pessimist," Helgarolled her eyes.

"I prefer the term wary-opptimism." Harry stated matter-of-factly.

**It didn't come... he kept on running... he opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it, He had done it.**

**Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.**

**The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."**

"He always hops away!" exclaimed Neville.

"Why don't you get a terrarium for him?" questioned Harry. Neville shrugged, and decided to look into the idea.

**"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.**

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.**

"Lee!" The twins cheered.

**"Give us a look, Lee, go on."**

**The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.**

Ron shuddered.

**Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.**

**"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier.**

**"Yes, please," Harry panted.**

**"Oi, Fred! C'mere and help!"**

**With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.**

**"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.**

**"What's that." said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.**

**"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you "**

**"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you." he added to Harry.**

**"What." said Harry.**

**"Harry Potter, "chorused the twins.**

**"Oh, him," said Harry_, still not used to being called Harry since he got back from his most recent stay at his great aunt's house_.**

The room burst out laughing. Dumbledore added another bullet point to his list.

"Nice, pup," Sirius laughed.

**"I mean, yes, I am."**

**The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.**

**"Fred. George. Are you there."**

**"Coming, Mum." With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.**

**Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying. Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.**

"Mr. Potter! You shouldn't spy on people," Minerva said.

"Spy? Harry? Never!" exclaimed the soon to be fifth and seventh year Gryffindors.

**"Ron, you've got something on your nose."**

**The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.**

"Social suicide," Sirius said.

**"Mum - geroff" He wriggled free.**

**"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie." said one of the twins.**

**"Shut up," said Ron.**

**"Where's Percy?" said their mother.**

The Weasley kids growled. Molly sniffed, and Arthur tightened his grip on the sofa. Harry wondered what that was all about.

**"He's coming now."**

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter P on it.**

**"Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves -"**

**"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy." said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise.**

**"You should have said something, we had no idea."**

**"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once -"**

**"Or twice -"**

**"A minute -"**

**"All summer -"**

Everybody snorted.

**"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.**

**"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway." said one of the twins.**

**"Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term - send me an owl when you get there."**

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.**

**"Now, you two - this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've - you've blown up a toilet or -"**

"Never tell pranksters what not to do," Tonks warned Molly.

**"Blown up a toilet. We've never blown up a toilet."**

**"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."**

**"It's not funny. And look after Ron."**

**"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."**

**"Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.**

**"Hey, Mum, guess what. Guess who we just met on the train."**

**Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.**

**"You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"**

**"Who?"**

**"Harry Potter!"**

**Harry heard the little girl's voice.**

**"Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please..."**

Ginny blushed. "You heard that?" she shouted.

**"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"**

**"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there - like lightning."**

**"Poor dear - no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."**

**"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"**

**Their mother suddenly became very stern.**

**"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."**

**"All right, keep your hair on."**

**A whistle sounded.**

**"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.**

**"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."**

**"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."**

**"George!"**

**"Only joking, Mum."**

**The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.**

**Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.**

**The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.**

**"Anyone sitting there." he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."**

"Did you actually check?" Hermione asked. Ron scratched his ear and looked away.

"Lay off him 'Mione, I had to go to the end to find an empty compartment, remember?" Harry said in defense of his friend.

**Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.**

**"Hey, Ron." The twins were back.**

**"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."**

Ron shuddered again.

**"Right," mumbled Ron.**

**"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves. Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."**

**"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.**

**"Are you really Harry Potter." Ron blurted out.**

**Harry nodded.**

**"Oh -well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got - you know..." He pointed at Harry's forehead.**

**Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.**

**"So that's where You-Know-Who "**

**"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."**

**"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.**

"RONALD! What did I just tell you?"

"You actually told Fred..." Ron trailed off at his mothers glare.

**"Well - I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."**

**"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.**

**"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.**

This surprised Ron.

**"Er - Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."**

"More like he never wants to talk to us," Arthur muttered.

**"So you must know loads of magic already." The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.**

"We are, but the Malfoys don't consider us to be one," Arthur said. Malfoy blushed.

**"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like."**

"Huge gits," Tonks said.

**"Horrible -well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."**

**"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left - Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."**

Everybody looked at Ron sadly. Especially his parents. Ron blushed.

**Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.**

**"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff - I mean, I got Scabbers instead."**

'We'll have a family meeting after this', Arthur decided. The Weasleys never knew Ron felt like this.

**Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.**

**Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.**

**"... and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort" Ron gasped.**

**"What?" said Harry_, worried he had done something wrong_.**

**"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people -"**

**"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry, I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean. I've got loads to learn... I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."**

**"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."**

**While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.**

**Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"**

**Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.**

**He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry - but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.**

"Jeez, not even Remus can eat that much candy," Sirius said.

"I do not eat a lot of candy," Remus protested.

"No, just chocolate," Sirius smirked.

**Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.**

**"Hungry, are you."**

**"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.**

**Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."**

Molly looked at Ron sadly. She decided that she would make a list of her children's favorite meat for sandwiches.

**"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on -"**

**"You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."**

**"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).**

"Your such a sweet kid," Molly cooed. Harry blushed.

**"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.**

**"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."**

**"What."**

**"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."**

"Still don't actually." stated Ron glumly.

**Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half- moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.**

**"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.**

**"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog. I might get Agrippa – thanks"**

**Harry turned over his card and read:**

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

* * *

**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS **

(A.N:I even added a line like in the book!)

**Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.**

"Right in front of us the whole time!" Hermione, Ron and, Harry muttered quietly.

**Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.**

**"He's gone!"**

**"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it. You can start collecting."**

**Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.**

**"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."**

**"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"**

"Like father, like son," Molly muttered.

**Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.**

**"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor - you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger- flavored one once."**

"I did! Horrible." George shuddered.

**Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner.**

**"Bleaaargh - see. Sprouts." They had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.**

"Not bad," Sirius reckoned.

Harry smirked and replied, "Better than vomit or earwax any day." When he heard this Dumbledore smiled, the rest of the room was left confused though. They understood how those flavors were better than vomit or earwax, but from Harry's tone of voice there was a hidden message or inside joke in his reply.

**The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.**

**There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.**

**"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all." When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"**

**"He'll turn up," said Harry.**

"Thanks Harry.": Neville.

**"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..."**

**He left.**

**"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."**

**The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.**

Remus and Sirius growled.

**"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..." He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.**

**"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway,"**

"Sorry," Charlie said.

**He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.**

**"Has anyone seen a toad. Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.**

"I don't think you have big front teeth," Sirius said, looking at her. Hermione blushed.

At his confused face she said, "Second book."

**"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.**

**"Oh, are you doing magic. Let's see it, then."**

**She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.**

**"Er - all right." He cleared his throat.**

**"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."**

The twins cracked up laughing.

"He actually"

"Believed that!"

Ron glared at them.

"Boys! Apologize to your brother," Molly scolded them.

"Sorry Ron," Fred said.

"Yeah, sorry."

**He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.**

**"Are you sure that's a real spell." said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it. I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"**

Mr. Weasley gasped for breath after he read that.

"Do you ever breathe?" Sirius asked. Hermione blushed.

**She said all this very fast.**

**Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.**

**"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.**

**"Harry Potter," said Harry.**

**"Are you really." said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books. for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."**

**"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.**

**"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in. I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."**

"You sure do talk a lot," Sirius reckoned.

**And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.**

**"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.**

"Ron!"

"Sorry mum, Hermione."

**He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell - George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."**

**"What house are your brothers in." asked Harry.**

**"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."**

**"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in."**

**"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.**

**"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry, trying to take Ron's mind off houses. "So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway."**

**Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school.**

**"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron.**

**"Did you hear about Gringotts. It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles - someone tried to rob a high security vault."**

**Harry stared.**

**"Really. What happened to them."**

**"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."**

**Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You- Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying.**

"That's the opposite of regular people, Harry." said Neville.

**"We always knew you weren't normal 'Rian." **the four founders teased Harry mentally. He just smirked and mock-glared at them.

**"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.**

**"Er - I don't know any," Harry confessed.**

Everybody looked at Harry now.

"Uhmm...Pride of Portree." He said quickly, He liked their uniform.

**"What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world -" And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.**

**Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.**

"I didn't know who you were in Diagon Alley." said Malfoy like it was obvious.

**"Is it true." he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"**

**"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.**

"Exactly what they are," Malfoy said quietly.

**"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."**

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.**

**"Think my name's funny, do you?**

"Well, your name means Dragon Bad Faith, so, Yes." Harry said just to see the reactions.

Everybody snorted. While Malfoy glared.

**No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."**

"Hey!" All of the present Weasleys protested.

**He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."**

**He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.**

**"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.**

"Go Harry!" Sirius cheered.

**Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.**

**"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."**

Many glares were directed at the Malfoy heir.

**Both Harry and Ron stood up.**

**"Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.**

**"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you." Malfoy sneered.**

**"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.**

**"But we don't feet like leaving, do we, boys. We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."**

**Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron - Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.**

**Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle –**

"Only useful thing that bastard has ever done." snarled Harry.

"Harry! Watch your language!" reprimanded Molly.

Harry cast her an annoyed look and stated "No. Because he deserves that particular term applied to him, just as much as Seba.." Harry suddenly stopped talking and pursed his lips angrily. The four founders cast him sympathetic looks.

(A.N: Seba is pronounced like one suddenly stopped in the middle of saying Sebastian. ;D)

**Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbets finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.**

**"What has been going on." she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.**

**I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No - I don't believe it - he's gone back to sleep-" And so he had.**

**"You've met Malfoy before."**

**Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.**

**"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."**

Malfoy looked angry.

**He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something."**

**"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you. You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"**

**"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"**

**"All right - I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know."**

**Ron glared at her as she left. Harry peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.**

**He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes.**

**Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath them.**

Ron and the other Weasley's blushed.

**A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."**

**Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.**

**The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"**

**Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.**

**"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years. Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. **

"That doesn't sound safe." said Rowena worried.

**Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.**

Neville blushed again.

**"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."**

**There was a loud "Oooooh!"**

**The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.**

Everyone smiled remembering their first trip to Hogwarts. The founders smiled remembering all of the work they put in to the castle, and the reactions of people when they first saw Hogwarts.

**"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione.**

**"Everyone in." shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - FORWARD!"**

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.**

**"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; ****they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.**

"That doesn't sound safe either." said Helga worriedly.

**"Oy, you there! Is this your toad." said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.**

**"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.**

**They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, Oak front door.**

**"Everyone here. You there, still got yer toad?"**

**Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.**

"That is the end of the chapter, who is reading next?" asked Mr. Weasley.

Rowena raised her hand, Mr. Wealsey handed her the book.

* * *

The end of another chapter Hurrah! review please. Tell me if you have any ideas to improve the story.


	9. Voluptua

I DO NOT OWN THIS I, LIKE MANY OF YOU, WISH I DID.

**Book = bold**

People in room = regular

**_Is what I added to the book = bold italics_**

Letters sent from the future = underlined

**"mental speak" = bold and in quotes (I can not get it to underline so it will be Bolded and in Quotes)**

'thoughts' = regular with apostrophes on both sides

~parseltounge~ = well it looks like that

AN: I apologize for all the punctuation errors in the real book. I just copied and pasted. I tried to fix the ones that I saw but I don't think I got all of them.

* * *

Rowena opened the book and began to read.

**CHAPTER SEVEN.**

**THE SORTING HAT.**

"Yay! We get to hear your sorting!" Sirius exclaimed happily. Harry just rolled his eyes.

**The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.**

"We noticed that the first time we saw her too." the twins told Harry. Unfortunately McGonagall heard them.

"Then, pray-tell, why do you two troublemakers always insist on crossing me?" The twins just grinned.

**"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall." said Hagrid.**

**"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.**

**They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right -the rest of the school must already be here **

Shacklebolt with Harry's hearing ability. As was Mad-Eye.

**- but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.**

**"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.**

"Free time?" asked Ron.

"I have never heard of this so-called free time, have you Hermione?" Harry questioned.

"Free time is also called spare time it is when you do things that you enjoy but are not obligated to do." Hermione answered promptly.

"Wow! Free time sounds like a lot of fun, where can we get some?" Harry and Ron asked at the same time.

"I am afraid that people who are fifth years at Hogwarts with the last names of Potter, Weasley and Granger are unable to have free time. It is quite tragic." Hermione answered gravely. The Golden Trio's antics made the rest of the room laugh, although some people, such as Molly Weasley, worried over the apparent lack of free time.

**"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.**

This time the reading was interrupted by four people with the aforementioned last name.

"Four? Why only four? There-" The four would have continued if not for a sharp glance from Harry. What they had said was enough to everyone else curious though.

** Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any ****rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. ****The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.**

"Not going to work, Cub." stated Remus.

"You're father called it the Potter curse. He said that there was an actual curse on the Potter's hair that makes it unruly." he continued.

"Believe me, I know." replied Harry while glaring at Helga.

**"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall.**

**"Please wait quietly." She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.**

**"How exactly do they sort us into houses." he asked Ron.**

**"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking." Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test. In front of the whole school. But he didn't know any magic yet - what on earth would he have to do. He hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived.**

**He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need. Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue. He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom.**

"Pessimistic much 'Rian?" asked Rowena as she paused in reading.

**Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air - several people behind him screamed.**

**"What the -." He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: **

**"Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance -"**

**"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves. He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost - I say, what are you all doing here."**

**A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.**

**Nobody answered.**

**"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose." A few people nodded mutely.**

**"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."**

**"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.**

**"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me." Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.**

**Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting.**

**These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.**

**Professor McGonagall led the first years up there, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them.**

**The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.**

**He heard Hermione whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open** **on to the heavens.**

**Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty.**

**"My hat!" **Godric shouted mentally. This made everyone who could hear him, the other time travelers, wince while holding their heads. They glared at him for good measure, which made Godric wince.

**Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.**

Sirius, Remus, Tonks and the Twins all looked as if they knew exactly where to put the old hat.

**Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing - noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth - and the hat began to sing: **

**"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,**

**But don't judge on what you see,**

**I'll eat myself if you can find**

**A smarter hat than me.**

**You can keep your bowlers black,**

**Your top hats sleek and tall,**

**For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat**

**And I can cap them all.**

**There's nothing hidden in your head**

**The Sorting Hat can't see,**

**So try me on and I will tell you**

**Where you ought to be.**

**You might belong in Gryffindor,**

**Where dwell the brave at heart, **

**Their daring, nerve, and chivalry **

**Set Gryffindors apart;**

**You might belong in Hufflepuff,**

**Where they are just and loyal,**

**Those patient Hufflepuffis are true**

**And unafraid of toil;**

**Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,**

**if you've a ready mind,**

**Where those of wit and learning,**

**Will always find their kind;**

**Or perhaps in Slytherin**

**You'll make your real friends,**

**Those cunning folk use any means**

**To achieve their ends.**

**So put me on! Don't be afraid! And don't get in a flap!**

**You're in safe hands (though I have none)**

**For I'm a Thinking Cap!"**

"Your hat can sing better than you Godric!" teased Salazar. Godric glared at his friend.

"Do be quiet." snapped Rowena

**the whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.**

**"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."**

At this the Golden Trio blinked and looked surprised.

**Harry smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him.**

**Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.**

**"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!" A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause - "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.**

**The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.**

**"Bones, Susan!"**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.**

**"Boot, Terry!"**

**"RAVENCLAW!" The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.**

**" Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.**

**"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot. He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during gym at his old school.**

**He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him.**

**"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!"**

**Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.**

**"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.**

**"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned.**

"Sorry 'Mione!" Ron apologized.

**A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all. What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train.**

**When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."**

Neville blushed.

**Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!" Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.**

**There weren't many people left now. "Moon" "Nott" "Parkinson" then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" then "Perks, Sally-Anne" and then, at last - "Potter, Harry!" As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.**

Everyone unconsciously leaned forward as if it would help them hear better.

**"Potter, did she say." The Harry Potter." The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.**

**Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting...**

"What was interesting?" asked Hermione.

Harry just shook his head and said that he would explain later.

**So where shall I put you." Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.**

**"Not Slytherin, eh." said the small voice. "Are you sure. You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that - no. Well, if you're sure - better be GRYFFINDOR!"**

"What?!" the people from the past asked. They were shocked, everyone was, except Dumbledore and Harry of course.

**Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. He was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, he hardly noticed that he was getting the loudest cheer yet. Percy the Prefect got up and shook his hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" Harry sat down opposite the ghost in the ruff he'd seen earlier. The ghost patted his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he'd just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water.**

**He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the center of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.**

**And now there were only three people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table.**

**"Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him. "Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley Pompously across Harry as "Zabini, Blaise," was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.**

**Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.**

**Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.**

"Nothing could." Dumbledore stated. While privately he thought about some thins that could please him more, such as the defeat of Voldemort, Harry actually happy, Ariana alive and well.

**"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! "Thank you!" He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.**

**"Is he - a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly.**

**"Mad." said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry." Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.**

**The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry, but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if It made him sick. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat.**

**It was all delicious.**

As if they had received their cue people's, read Sirius and Ron's, stomachs began to growl.

"Mum, when are we going to eat?" asked Ron.

"After this chapter, Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore had answered after checking his watch.

**"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak, "Can't you -."**

**I haven't eaten for nearly five hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself. Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."**

**"I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you - you're Nearly Headless Nick!"**

**"I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy -" the ghost began stiffly, but sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan interrupted. **

**"Nearly Headless. How can you be nearly headless." Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted.**

"It wasn't" Harry stated at the same time Sirius said that it was going the way Sir Nicholas wnted it to.

**"Like this," he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces,**

"See?" Sirius asked triuphantly. Harry just rolled his eyes, he had asked Nick later on after all.

**Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said, "So - new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year. Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable - he's the Slytherin ghost." Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements.**

**"How did he get covered in blood." asked Seamus with great interest.**

**"I've never asked," said Nearly Headless Nick delicately.**

**When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding - " As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.**

**"I'm half-and-half," said Seamus. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him." The others laughed_, Harry didn't, he would never forget the screams of Lady Saye_.**

Harry and the others who had known the late Lady Saye bowed their heads and said "May she rest in peace."

"Who is Lady Saye, Mr. Potter?" asked McGonagall. No body answered her.

**"What about you, Neville?" asked Ron.**

**"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family thought I was all- Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me - he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned - but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced - all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here - they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."**

McGonagall promised to herself to go have a talk with Neville's grandmother about trying to force him to show magic.

**On Harry's other side, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons ("I do hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult-"; "You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing - ").**

**Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet.**

**Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.**

**It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes - and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.**

**"Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head.**

**"What is it?" asked Percy.**

**"N-nothing." The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher's look - a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all.**

**"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell." he asked Percy.**

**"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you. No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to - everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape." Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again.**

**At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.**

**"Ahem - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.**

**"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.**

**"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.**

**"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.**

**"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did.**

**"He's not serious." he muttered to Percy.**

"Of course he isn't! I am!/ Hogwarts would never allow something that could harm her students into the halls!" answered Sirius and Godric at the same time. They looked at each other strangely while everyone else just groaned at Sirius' bed pun. Dumbledore added another question to his list.

**"Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere - the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us prefects, at least." **

**"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.**

**Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.**

**"Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!" And the school bellowed: "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, Teach us something please, Whether we be old and bald Or young with scabby knees, Our heads could do with filling With some interesting stuff, For now they're bare and full of air, Dead flies and bits of fluff, So teach us things worth knowing, Bring back what we've forgot, just do your best, we'll do the rest, And learn until our brains all rot."**

"Annoying, drunken fools!" muttered Helga and Rowena. The three boys that they had directed their mutter to just ignored them. The people who were sitting close enough to hear what the two female founders said became curious.

**Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march.**

**Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they ****had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.**

**"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all** **we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"**

**The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.**

**A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.**

**"Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves - show yourself" A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.**

**"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron." There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross- legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.**

**"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!" He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked.**

**"Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" barked Percy.**

**Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armor as he passed.**

**"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy, as they set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are."**

"He listens to Harry." stated the Weasley twins innocently. Harry blushed when he saw everyone staring at him curiously.

**At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.**

**"Password." she said. "Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it - Neville needed a leg up - and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs.**

**Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase - they were obviously in one of the towers - they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.**

**"Great food, isn't it." Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings.**

**"Get off, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets." Harry was going to ask Ron if he'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once.**

**Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn't want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully - and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it -then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold - there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.**

**He rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn't remember the dream at all.**

The Golden Trio all had looks of wonder on their faces. This made the other occupants of the room curious.

* * *

Please Review and tell me what you think. Updates will be a little slow for now as I am participating in NaNoWriMo and I also have homework that needs to get done.


	10. Interrogation and FOOD!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and will review! All of the reviews help me keep writing. Now Onwards and Upwards! HAPPY NEW YEARS!

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Harry Potter. I only own 1 copy out of millions of all the books in their hardback form.

Oh! Before I forget! The explanation about why only Harry cooks at the Dursley's house is not my idea. I read it in a fic by Firehedgehog a few months ago and I thought that it would be brilliant to include in this fic. I have permission to have it in here as long as I state my source which as you just read above I have. The fic can be found at: /s/4589753 (I assume that you all know what to put at the beginning if you wish to read it.)

* * *

Dumbledore had promised Ron that they would eat after the chapter was over so everyone got up to go to the kitchen. That is they got up and then realized that they were in an unknown room and had zero idea where the kitchen was or indeed if there was even a kitchen at all. Everyone sat back down to ponder their predicament. After a while, about ten minutes, Rowena Ravenclaw jumped up. Everyone looked up at the movement. Many of the rooms occupants stared questioningly at Rowena but none of them were brave enough to ask why she had jumped up. None of them that is except for one Neville Longbottom.

"Wh-what is it?" Neville blushed after he spoke, probably because everyone was now looking at him instead of the founder. The aforementioned founder simply smiled at the boy before she replied.

"The note said that our food could not be provided by the room that we are in, however it also said that as a solution to our problem we should call upon someone named Timeon." Rowena told the others thoughtfully. Nobody could decide who should call for this "Timeon" though, so everyone was at a loss.

"Timeon!" Came a sudden call that made the other occupants of the room jump. They looked around trying to figure out who had called the...well whomever would be providing their food. Salazar Slytherin had a smirk upon his face that soon everyone noticed, at least they knew who had made them jump.

Salazar stared at the others that were in the room before asking; "What? Nobody else was taking the initiative and I for one am beginning to get hungry."

After Salazar had spoken there was a brief period of silence before an unfamiliar voice speaking startled everyone that was in the room, even the normally unflappable Severus Snape.

"Someone asked for Timeon? How cans Timeon serves yous?" Everyone's head snapped around to where they heard the voice coming from. They saw a sight that after they heard the way the owner of the voice spoke didn't really surprise any of them. They were greeted with the sight of a house elf. The house elf, Timeon, was wearing a strange outfit though. To the people who usually saw house elves wearing dirty pillow cases that is, or any type of pillow case really. Timeon was wearing a tunic type outfit that was a medium purple with brown edging and a brown braided rope that tied at the elf's waist.

"Wotcher, Timeon! We wish for some food that we can eat." Tonks told the elf at the same moment as Ron's stomach growled yet again. Timeon nodded at Tonks before replying.

"Yous will haves your foods right aways missus." After Timeon left Ginny noticed a door on one of the walls that hadn't been there before.

"Hey guys, was that door there before?" Ginny asked the others, pointing behind everyone at the door. The others turned around and saw the door. Ron was about to open the door before Mad-Eye stopped him.

"Don't open it boy! It could be a trap!" Ron jumped at the sound of Mad-Eye's voice. Kingsley walked past Ron, got out his wand and opened the door. When nothing happened Kingsley looked inside and saw a table with enough chairs for everyone to sit in.

"I assume that it is just a dining room. Judging by the table and chairs." Everyone relaxed at Kingsley's words. They then proceeded to enter the room and sit down in the chairs. After everyone was situated lots of food appeared on the table, along with plates and silverware as well as goblets to drink from. Chicken, turkey, mashed potatoes, soup, spagetti anything you could possibly want to eat. To drink they had butterbeer, pumpkin juice, water and tea. Everyone started to pile food onto their plates, everyone except for Harry that is.

As Harry stared at the table full of food, he quickly realised that an essential part of every meal was missing from the table. So Harry called upon Timeon to solve the problem.

"Timeon!" Harry called for the house elf. Harry had a very important question to ask him. Timeon popped in.

"Yes Master?"

"Could you please ask my mother to make some of her delicious Treacle Tart?"

"Of course Master, Timeon will dos that right away." Timeon popped out then he popped back in just a minute later with a plate full of Treacle Tart."

"Master is going to bes poisoned one days." Timeon told Harry warningly as Harry grabbed the plate full of treacle tart.

"I know Timeon." was Harry's reply.

"Master will dies from the poison." Timeon told Harry urgently.

"I know." Harry replied calmly. Dumbledore and the other adults became slightly worried, nobody should sound that calm about their death. The founders just watched in confusion, they had questions that Harry needed to answer.

"Timeon won't be ables to saves yous." Timeon insisted with wide eyes. Harry just stared at the elf before he replied once again.

"I know." After Harry replied matter-of-factly to Timeon statement that the poison would kill him and Timeon wouldn't be able to do anything about it Hermione's eyes had begun to tear up. Hermione couldn't stand the thought of one of her best friends dying. Ron just sat in shock.

"That won't happen for at least another hundred years or so though, so calm down. I don't see a good reason to worry over it at this point in time."

"Timeon will dies when Master dies! What if Timeon never has another master?" Timeon looked to be upon the verge of tears. Harry saw this and stopped eating his Treacle Tart. Harry then kneeled down on one kee in front of Timeon and put a hand on Timeon's shoulder.

"You will die, yes. But in time someone else will be born who is like me and everyone that you served before me. They will need your guidance and knowlege. So you will come back, perhaps in a different form, as a different elf or maybe even as an animal! But you _will_ come back. So do not worry yourself my dear friend."

After everyone finished eating their lunch Timeon popped all the dirty dishes to the Hogwarts kitchen to be cleaned and when he came back he had the desert. Dessert was worms in mud. Basically it was chocolate pudding with chocolate cookies crumbled on top with gummy worms sticking out of the pudding. Remus, Sirius and Ron dug right in.

After dessert everyone sat back in their chairs in order to digest the food they had just consumed as well as get answers to their questions.

"Well who wants to go first?" Harry calmly asked everyone. The others just stared at eachother before Ron bursted out with his question.

"Why is Malfoy here?"

"Because the person who sent us the books trust him." Rowena replied like it was obvious. After Rowena answered Sirius had a question that was along the same lines as the one that Ron asked.

"Why is Slytherin here? He is evil!"

Harry glared angrily at Sirius before he answered Sirius' question and even when Harry answered it sounded like a hiss he was so angry.

"He is my friend Sirius, he isn't evil! He needs to know what goes on in my life just as much as everyone else in this room. If you insult him again I will make you regret it. Do you understand?"

"I-I understand. Sorry Harry." Sirius replied with wide eyes. Everyone else in the room promised to themselves not to insult Harry or any of Harry's friends. Harry was scary when he was mad! Trying to diffuse the tention Mr. Weasley spoke up.

"Would Molly and Ron follow please follow me, I think we need to have a discussion." Mr. Weasley got up from his seat beside his wife and walked out the door to the room that they had been reading the books in. His wife and son followed.

"What is this about dad?" Ron asked his father when his mother had finished placing a privacy charm on the door.

"Is that really how you feel son?" Mr. Weasley asked his youngest son.

"What do you mean dad?" Ron asked, acidentally copying what Harry did when he didn't really want to talk about something.

"Like your brothers are better than you. That it doesn't matter if you do anything because your siblings have already done it." Molly told her son.

"Well not so much any more. I mean, no one else in our family is Harry's best friend. None of then ever went down to try and save Ginny. None of them faught-" Ron broke off realizing that he had almost said to much.

"Faught? What do you mean Ron?" Arthur asked sharply.

"I-you'll find out later in the book. Can we go back in now?" Ron looked at his parents hopefully.

"Yes we can go in. Just know that we are proud of you, it doesn't matter if your brothers have done something before you. You are your own person." Molly answered her son before she pulled him into one of her famous hugs. The trio then went back into the dining room and sat down quietly and listened to Tonks tell the others about Auror training.

When Tonks was done with her little filler story she asked a question that she really wanted to know the answer to.

"What was interesting?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked her, he was honestly confused.

"When you were being sorted the Hat said that something was interesting what was interesting?" Tonks clarified.

"Oh, that, what was interesting was that I knew the Godric, Rowena, Helga and Salazar." Harry told her the truth, it just wasn't the complete truth. Not that anyone but Harry and the Hat knew that of course. Though Dumbledore and Mad-Eye did suspect that Harry hadn't told the complete truth.

"Why do you cook for your relatives?" Professor Sprout asked.

"Well it is a bit of a story actually. But the basics are that Auntie found a recipe for stuffing on the internet, which is basically a library that is accessible from all over the world, she was making Christmas dinner one day and back then I only helped out in the kitchen. Though I did ocassionally make lunch. I digress, I was helping her out when I realised that something wasn't right with the recipe. I tried to tell Auntie but she wouldn't listen. So when Uncle Vernon tried to carve the turkey it blew up in everyone's face. The recipe was actually for a bomb. So Auntie was banned from making elaborate meals and I got food duty since I am the only one in the house who can manage to make a meal without burning anything up." Harry nodded after he finished his story and everyone else except for Hermione and Ron who had already known were in shock.

"She _blew up_ the turkey!" Sirius asked incredously. Harry just nodded and waited for the next question.

"So how do you know the Founders Mr. Potter?" Professor Flitwick asked after the shock of someone blowing up something with a recipe of all things wore off.

"That is simple enough to explain. I ended up in front of my great aunt's house in the middle of a blizzard. I ended up getting really sick so I stayed there for a while and Godric, Rowena, Salazar and Helga lived nearby so we played together often and then I ended up going back to the Dursley's house for a while after I got better. At least once a year ever since I have visited my great aunt and stayed at her house. While I stayed I made friends with Ric, Ro, Zar and El. That is how I know them." Harry answered truthfully yet he still left some things out. The others would find out in time.

"Alright then, who is Lady Saye? Nobody answered me before when I asked." Professor McGonagall asked once again. This time it was Salazar who answered the question.

"The others and I were out playing when we heard a person shouting for someone to let her go. Lady Saye was a kind lady who often visited our village, she visited because her parents lived in the village, and she was a witch. But her husband was a mun-"

"Muggle, he was a muggle." Harry interupted before nodding at his friend to continue.

"She was very careful to hide her magic, but one day her husband went home early and she was using magic to clean up the house. He saw her and accused her of witchcraft as well as bewitching him to love her. She denied his claims but he didn't believe her, so he took her wand and broke it. He also tied her up. Then he got some of his friends together and they ended up burning her at the stake. All because she was a witch. We had hid behind a bush so no one could see us so we didn't actually see her get burned but we smelt the smoke and burning flesh." Salazar finished up the little story. He and his friends bowed their heads in a moment of silence along with the rest of the people in the room, even Malfoy bowed his head.

"Professor Hufflepuff, why did you apologize to Harry for mentioning Rape?" Bill asked quietly.

Helga looked sadly at Bill before she answered. "Someone close to him was raped. Just leave it at that." When she had told Bill to leave it at that she was speaking to the rest of the room as well. They got the message, none of them would bring it up again. Helga sent an apologizing look at her friend, he had closed his eyes and looked like he was about to hit himself.

"I think that is enough questions for now. Besides, it is already one o'clock. If we don't stop now and get back to reading the book we will never get out of here." Albus stated sternly. Stopping the questions was the least that he could do for the person he considered a grandson. Harry sent a grateful look towards Dumbledore but Dumbledore didn't look back at Harry. Hermione looked really disappointed, she had wanted to ask Professor Ravenclaw some questions.

Timeon popped back in after everyone had finished asking their questions. The questions that they were ready to ask and were able to get answers for at least.

"Mister Snape is being requested to read nows." Timeon said before he popped out again. After Timeon left the humans sat back down in the comfy chairs and couches, but before Snape sat down he grabbed the book from where it was sitting on the table.

* * *

I have a poll up on my profile. Please vote! Please Review as well! :D If I had one review for every follower of this fic, I would already have 102 reviews. Last time I checked anyway. I am also open to any suggestions you may have. That does not however mean that the suggestion(s) will be used. Happy Holidays! Oh! I should have the next chapter up within two weeks. If I don't pleaase feel free to throw things at me. A grand total of 2,481 words! WOOOO! And that is just for the story!


	11. Cauldrons and A Mystery

I DO NOT OWN THIS I, LIKE MANY OF YOU, WISH I DID.

**Book = bold**

People in room = regular

**_Is what I added to the book = bold italics_**

Letters sent from the future = underlined

**"mental speak" = bold and in quotes (I can not get it to underline so it will be Bolded and in Quotes)**

'thoughts' = regular with apostrophes on both sides

~parseltounge~ = well it looks like that

* * *

Snape picked up the book, wondering why the house elf insited that he read the next chapter. After opening the book to the proper page and reading the chapter title Snape immeadiately knew why he was supposed to read the chapter.

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

**THE POTIONS MASTER**

"Oh, great, a whole chapter devoted to that greasy git." sighed Sirius, as Snape glared at him.

**"There, look."**

**"Where?"**

**"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."**

**"Wearing the glasses?"**

**"Did you see his face?"**

**"Did you see his scar?"**

**Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring.**

**Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes.**

Snape was surprised that Harry, no, Potter didn't like the staring.

**There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: **

"You actually counted them?!" asked Neville astonished. Harry simply smiled secretly and nodded.

**wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place,**

"Like the kitchens, you tickle the pear." Remus smiled and thought to himself. 'But how could Harry possibly know this. He had only been at Hogwarts for a week.'

**and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armour could walk.**

"They can." The four heads of house said at the same time.

**The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"**

"Your father taught him that!" Sirius exclaimed, smirking.

**Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning.**

**Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. **

"Sweet!" This was shouted by the twins.

**He wouldn't believe they were lost, **

"Oh." the twins all looked disappointed at this, much to everyone else's amusement.

**was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.**

"That's lucky." Tonks said. The trio just looked like they were tempted to bang their heads on the wall.

**Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-coloured creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. **

"That cat's still alive!" Sirius cried, "There you go professor, proof of demon cats!" he continued triumphantly. McGonagall said nothing. It was no secret that she hated that cat.

**She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. **

"I have always wondered how he moved so bloody fast." Charlie stated.

**Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.**

**And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.**

"Just a bit." Remus chuckled.

**They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.**

**Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.**

**Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.**

**Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, **

McGonagall smiled smugly. Her collegues rolled their eyes at her.

**she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.**

**"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."**

"We were warned, and you always let us come back." said Sirius.

McGonagall smiled, "While the stunts you pulled were annoying, you were never cruel with your jokes, and I've always been very fond of you lot." The two Marauders beamed proudly, happy to get the praise of their favourite teacher. "Also, a lot of your pranks did display some truly fantastic transfiguration skills, something I wasn't able to praise you for whilst reprimanding you." The last of the Marauders chuckled.

**Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.**

**After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.**

**The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. **

"Wonderful." said Sirius sarcastically. "They're gonna have a lot to catch up on next year."

**His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story.**

"I wouldn't." Kingsley frowned.

**For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; **

"Then it's not true. Good defence teachers are always willing to share their stories." said Charlie.

**for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.**

**Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.**

**Friday was an important day for Harry and Ron. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.**

"It took your father, Sirius and I two weeks!" Remus shouted in surprise. The founders and Harry just smiled, they knew why it had only taken a week for Harry to find the Great Hall.

"It took us," Fred started to say before his twin finished their sentence.

"Two and a half."

**"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.**

**"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favours them - we'll be able to see if it's true."**

"It'll be true." Remus sighed.

**"Wish McGonagall favoured us." said Harry. **

"Keep dreaming, Harry." Sirius chuckled. "She never favours anyone."

The current Gryffindors just smiled mysteriously.

**Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.**

**Just then, the mail arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters**

**and packages onto their laps.**

**Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls. This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto**

**Harry's plate. **

**Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:**

**Dear Harry,**

**I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?**

**I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.**

**Hagrid**

**Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled Yes, please, see you later on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.**

**It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far.**

**At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong. **

"Huh?" asked Sirius.

**Snape didn't dislike Harry - he hated him.**

"Ah, that makes more sense." Remus said.

**Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.**

**Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.**

**"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new - celebrity."**

**Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. **

"Harry, stop comparing the greasy git to the awesome people we love." Sirius groaned. Snape glared.

**They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.**

**"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.**

**"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."**

"That was a great speech until the dunderheads part." Sprout frowned.

**More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.**

**"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"**

**Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air.**

"Whoa. You must have read some advanced textbooks if you knew that Hermione." Remus said, with raised eyebrows.

**"I don't know, sir," said Harry.**

**Snape's lips curled into a sneer.**

**"Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything."**

**He ignored Hermione's hand.**

**"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"**

**Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.**

**"I don't know, sir." **

**"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming eh, Potter?"**

"Git." This comment came from Ron of course.

**Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?**

"No, he's just trying to humiliate you." Sirius growled.

**Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.**

**"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"**

"Trick question." Bill said, "They're the same."

By this point, everyone was glaring at Snape, even Dumbledore, though Malfoy wasn't glaring but then again why would he.

**At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.**

**"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"**

**A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased.**

**"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"**

"Because you didn't tell them to." McGonagall said angrily. She wouldn't take any nonsense in her class, but she was at least fair, and didn't purposely humiliate her students.

**There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."**

**Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. **

**He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. **

**Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils**

**sprang up all over his arms and legs.**

**"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"**

**Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.**

**"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron,**

"Of course." Sirius scowled, "Now the greasy git's going to blame them."

**who had been working next to Neville.**

**"You - Potter - why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? **

"Maybe because he was working on his own potion?" Remus glared at Snape. Snape just glared back and continued to read.

**Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."**

**This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.**

**"Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."**

**As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week - why did Snape hate him so much? **

**"Cheer up," said Ron, "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?"**

**At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.**

**When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang - back."**

**Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.**

**"Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang."**

**He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.**

**There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.**

**"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.**

**"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.**

**"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles.**

"Why the freckles?" Ron asked Hagrid. Everyone else also wantedo know the answer to that.

"Freckles tell secrets." Hagrid replied. This did not help to clear any confusion that they had.

**I spend half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest."**

**The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first -lessons. Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.**

**Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Fitch "that old git."**

Everyone chuckled at this.

**"An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her - Fitch puts her up to it."**

**Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.**

"Then why is he a teacher?" asked Molly.

**"But he seemed to really hate me."**

**"Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?"**

**Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.**

**"How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot - great with animals."**

"Cheers Hagrid." said Charlie.

"Great subject change Hagrid." Tonks chuckled. Hagrid blushed.

**Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:**

**GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST**

Everyone perked up at this.

**Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.**

**"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokes goblin this afternoon.**

**Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date.**

**"Hagrid!" said Harry, "that Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!"**

**There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time. He grunted and offered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?**

"Most likely." Mad-Eye growled out.

**As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. **

Sirius and Remus chuckled at that. "Don't tell them that pup." Sirius laughed, as McGonagall frowned.

**Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry?**

"Yeh caught that? Ferget I said anything!" Hagrid asked before he realised what he had just said. Harrry nodded and smiled.


	12. A Nightmare While Awake

I DO NOT OWN THIS I, LIKE MANY OF YOU, WISH I DID.

**Book = bold**

People in room = regular

**_Is what I added to the book = bold italics_**

Letters sent from the future = underlined

**"mental speak" = bold and in quotes (I can not get it to underline so it will be Bolded and in Quotes)**

'thoughts' = regular with apostrophes on both sides

~parseltounge~ = well it looks like that

* * *

"Who would like to read next?" Snape asked with disdain. When Salazar told him that he would like to read instead of shoving the book at him like Snape would usually do he just handed it over calmly.

"**The Midnight Duel**" Salazar read.

**Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy.**

"Stop comparing me to your cousin Potter!" Malfoy snapped. The others just ignored him.

**Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Malfoy much. Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan.**

**Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday - and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.**

"Why do Slytherin and Gryffindor always end up in the most dangerous classes?" Neville asked as most students groaned.

**"Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."**

"As if," Ron said. "You made the Quidditch team because you outflew Malfoy."

**He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.**

"You're your father's son, Harry," Remus said with a smile. Harry smiled back.

**"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."**

"It is not!" Malfoy said haughtily.

**Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters. He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom.**

"Seamus' is more believable," nearly everyone muttered.

**Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about football. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. **

"It is quite a boring sport, considering it's the most popular sport in the muggle world," said Harry thoughfully. "I mean, hardly anyone scores and the scores rarely ever go above five in a match. You just watch a bunch of guys kicking a football around."

**Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham soccer team, trying to make the players move.**

**Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, Harry felt she'd had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.**

"Sorry Nev," Harry said sheepishly. Neville waved away Harry's apology.

"It was true," he admitted. "Besides, I prefer both feet on the ground, thanks."

**Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book - not that she hadn't tried.**

"It did help my nerves a little," Hermione said. "But just the fact that it didn't tell you what to do in the way of steering your broom or keeping it under control unnerved me more than anything." Harry and Ron laughed at her.

**At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages.**

Hermione shrugged. It had helped her to think that she was helping the others, particularly Neville.

**Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.**

"Thanks guys," Hermione huffed.

**Harry hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course. Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.**

**A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.**

"What is the point of a remembrall?" Ron asked.

"It's supposed to tell you you've forgotten something, but not what you've forgotten," Hermione answered instantly.

"But how does that work?" Neville asked.

"It's supposed to help with someone's memory," not Hermione, but Tonks, answered. "By the remembrall not telling you what you've forgotten, you work your mind into thinking of what you did forget and therefore, you remember what you forgot."

**"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things – this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red - oh..." His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet,**

**"You've forgotten something..." **

**Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand. **

Snape looked at Malfoy in dissapproval.

**Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy,**

"James and Sirius with Severus all over again," Remus muttered to himself, luckily nobody heard him.

**but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.**

"Of course I can," McGonagall said. "Number one: cat instincts. Number two: I learnt after teaching the Marauders."

Sirius just beamed.

**"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."**

**Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.**

**"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.**

"I did not slope!" Malfoy protested. The Gryffindor students just rolled their eyes at him.

**At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.**

**The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms,** **saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.**

**Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.**

**"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."**

**Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.**

"You got a pretty good one then." Fred said.

**"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!"'**

**"UP" everyone shouted.**

**Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did.**

"A natural flier," Remus said with a smile of remembrance on his face.

**Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.**

**Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.**

The Gryffindors openly laughed at Malfoy's embarrassment, they only stopped when Mrs. Weasley glared at them.

**"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle - three**

**two -"**

**But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before thewhistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.**

**"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle - twelve feet - twenty feet. Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and – **

**WHAM - a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.**

**Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.**

**"Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. **

"Not a bad injury." Charlie stated.

**"Come on, boy - it's all right, up you get.".**

**She turned to the rest of the class.**

**"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."**

"Obviously, that doesn't count if you're Saint Potter," Malfoy muttered, too low for anyone to hear.

**Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.**

**No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.**

**"Did you see his face, the great lump?"**

Ron glared at Malfoy.

**The other Slytherins joined in.**

**"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.**

**"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."**

"Gryffindors stick together," Harry said proudly, while all the current Gryffindor students who were present nodded in agreement.

**"Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."**

**The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.**

**"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.**

"Of course they did," Harry sighed.

**Malfoy smiled nastily.**

"Does he smile any other way?" Fred asked.

"Nope, that's his natural smile. Got it from his dear old mum," George corrected.

**"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find - how about - up a tree?"**

**"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"**

Hermione face-palmed as she knew Harry would never back down from a challenge.

**Harry grabbed his broom.**

**"No!" shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move - you'll get us all into trouble."**

**Harry ignored her. Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him -and in a rush of fierce joy he realized he'd found something he could do without being taught - this was easy, this was wonderful.**

"A natural," Charlie commented.

**He pulled his broomstick upa little to take it even higher, and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Ron.**

**He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.**

"Of course I did. I didn't know you could fly," Malfoy muttered.

**"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"**

**"Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.**

"Crabbe and Goyle weren't up there to fight his battles for him," Neville said matter-of-factly. Nearly everyone snickered while Malfoy tinged pink.

**Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.**

**"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called.**

**The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy.**

**"Catch it if you can, then!" he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground.**

**Harry saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall. He leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down - next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball - wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screams of people watching - he stretched out his hand - a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist.**

**"HARRY POTTER!"**

**His heart sank faster than he'd just dived. Professor McGonagall was running toward them. He got to his feet, trembling.**

"Busted." Fred and George sang.

**"Never - in all my time at Hogwarts -"**

"Have I seen such amazing seeker skills," McGonagall finished. Harry smiled at her, to which McGonagall returned the smile.

**Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "- how dare you - might have broken your neck -"**

**"It wasn't his fault, Professor -"**

**"Be quiet, Miss Patil."**

**"But Malfoy -"**

**"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now."**

**Harry caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces as he left, walking numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle. He was going to be expelled, he just knew it.**

"Nope, she's a huge softie," Remus grinned. McGonagall glared at him.

**He wanted to say something to defend himself, but there seemed to be something wrong with his voice. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking at him; he had to jog to keep up. Now he'd done it. He hadn't even lasted two weeks. He'd be packing his bags in ten minutes. What would the Dursleys say when he turned up on the doorstep?**

"Not anything good that's for sure." Helga said wisely. Her friends nodded in agreement.

"You could always stay with us though, then you would never have to deal with them again." Godric added.

"What about Marki though?" Harry asked, more to make the others curious than anything else.

"He would stay with you of course!" Rowena answered.

**Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still Professor McGonagall didn't say a word to him. She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry trotting miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking him to Dumbledore. He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper. Perhaps he could be Hagrid's assistant. His stomach twisted as he imagined it, watching Ron and the others becoming wizards, while he stumped around the grounds carrying Hagrid's bag.**

Nearly everyone shook their heads at Harry's dramatics.

**Professor McGonagall stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.**

**"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"**

**Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on him?**

McGonagall's nostrils flared. "I NEVER physically punish a student," she said in a low voice. "What made you think so Potter?"

"Just reaching any conclusion I could think of," Harry said quickly. McGonagall let the subject drop for now, but vowed to talk to him about it.

**But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth-year boy who came out of Flitwicks class looking confused.**

**"Follow me, you two," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Harry.**

**"In here."**

**Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard.**

**"Out, Peeves!" she barked. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing. Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the two boys.**

**"Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood - I've found you a Seeker."**

**Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight.**

**"Are you serious, Professor?"**

"Of course-" Sirius was cut off by a glare from Harry who was getting tired of the pun.

**"Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?"**

**Harry nodded silently. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he didn't seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to his legs.**

**"He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood. "Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it."**

"Really?" Charlie asked his old head of house.

"Indeed." McGonagall promptly answered.

"And, as Oliver likes to put it, Charlie could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons," George added.

**Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once.**

**"Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potter?" he asked excitedly.**

**"Wood's captain of the Gryffindor team," Professor McGonagall explained.**

**"He's just the build for a Seeker, too," said Wood, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light - speedy - we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor - a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."**

"Nimbus," Harry said sadly, in memory of his first broom.

**I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks..."**

"Why would you want to?" Ron asked, but shrunk under Snape's glare.

**Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry.**

**"I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you."**

"And I did, didn't I?" Harry said with a smirk. Snape was strongly reminded of James Potter.

**Then she suddenly smiled.**

**"Your father would have been proud," she said. "He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."**

**"You're joking."**

"No, he really was an excellent player." Remus answered.

**It was dinnertime. Harry had just finished telling Ron what had happened when he'd left the grounds with Professor McGonagall. Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but he'd forgotten all about it.**

"...Oh." Remus blushed.

Ron's siblings all looked gobsmacked. "How did you do that?" George asked. Harry shrugged.

"I haven't been able to do it since," he said.

**"Seeker?" he said. "But first years never - you must be the youngest house player in- **

**"About a century, said Harry, shoveling pie into his mouth. He felt particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon. "Wood told me."**

**Ron was so amazed, so impressed; he just sat and gaped at Harry.**

**"I start training next week," said Harry. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."**

"As if you can keep anything secret in Hogwarts," Tonks muttered. The trio whistled innocently, attracting looks, looks that they easily ignored.

**Fred and George Weasley now came into the hall, spotted Harry, and hurried over.**

**"Well done," said George in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team too - Beaters."**

**"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year," said Fred. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."**

**"Anyway, we've got to go; Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."**

**"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."**

"Impressive," Remus said while Snuffles barked in agreement. Fred and George looked at each other gleefully at being complimented by two of the Marauders.

**Fred and George had hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.**

**"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"**

"When your father stops worshipping Voldemort, or the end of the year, whichever one comes first." Harry shot back. Malfoy glared at Harry.

**"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," said Harry coolly.**

"Little?" The other Gryffindors asked in disbelief. "They aren't little!"

"Compared to Dear cousin Dudders, they are very small." Harry answered with his nose wrinkled in disgust.

**There was of course nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.**

**"I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only - no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"**

**"Of course he has," said Ron, wheeling around. "I'm his second, who's yours?"**

"Ronald!" Mrs Weasley snapped. Ron blanched under his mum's ferocious glare and turned red with embarrassment at being chastised in front of all of the people in the room.

**Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.**

**"Crabbe," he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."**

**When Malfoy had gone, Ron and Harry looked at each other. "What is a wizard's duel?" said Harry. "And what do you mean, you're my second?"**

**"Well, a second's there to take over if you die," said Ron casually,**

"Casual is the only way to tell someone they're going to die," Godric said with a snort.

**getting started at last on his cold pie. Catching the look on Harry's face, he added quickly, "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."**

**"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"**

**"Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggested.**

"Nice one Ron," Sirius said quietly so Molly wouldn't hear him.

**"Excuse me."**

**They both looked up. It was Hermione Granger.**

**"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" said Ron.**

"Sorry about that," Ron said.

"That's alright," Hermione replied. "I was a bit of a snob back then wasn't I?" Harry and Ron nodded.

**Hermione ignored him and spoke to Harry.**

**"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying -"**

**"Bet you could," Ron muttered.**

**"-and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."**

**"And it's really none of your business," said Harry.**

"Sorry," Harry said sheepishly. Hermione shrugged and smiled.

"Just think," she said. "After I find out how much you've both insulted me, I won't have to look over your work anymore." Harry and Ron looked horrified while Fred and George looked like they had never been prouder of Hermione than at that moment.

**"Good-bye," said Ron.**

**All the same, it wasn't what you'd call the perfect end to the day, Harry thought, as he lay awake much later listening to Dean and Seamus falling asleep (Neville wasn't back from the hospital wing). Ron had spent all evening giving him advice such as "If he tries to curse you, you'd better dodge it, because I can't remember how to block them."**

"That's actually quite good advice Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said. "Dodging is, of course, the basic and most instinctive way of avoiding being hit by a spell." Ron blushed at being directly spoken to by Dumbledore.

**There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris, and Harry felt he was pushing his luck, breaking another school rule today. On the other hand, Malfoys sneering face kept looming up out of the darkness - this was his big chance to beat Malfoy face-to-face. He couldn't miss it.**

Remus shook his head at the similarities between Harry and James.

**"Half-past eleven," Ron muttered at last, "we'd better go."**

**They pulled on their bathrobes, picked up their wands, and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase, and into the Gryffindor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turningall the armchairs into hunched black shadows. They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them, "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."**

**A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown.**

**"You!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"**

"Well said," Bill said with a nod. He didn't know how interfering she was in Harry's and Ron's lives. Hermione looked slightly hurt.

**"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy - he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."**

"Low blow," Ron said to Hernione.

"You know I wasn't going to," Hermione said. "I wanted you both to be my friends."

**Harry couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering.**

"Sorry," Harry said.

"Stop saying sorry, alright? I've forgiven you both," Hermione said.

**"Come on," he said to Ron. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.**

**Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.**

Hermione hit Harry for that one.

**"Don't you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."**

**"Go away." **

**All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so -"**

**But what they were, they didn't find out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.**

**"Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.**

**"That's your problem," said Ron. "We've got to go, we are going to be late."**

**They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them.**

**"I'm coming with you," she said.**

**"You are not."**

**"Do you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."**

"Would you have done that?" Mad-Eye asked.

"I wouldn't have, but Harry would've for sure," Ron replied. "He's too noble for his own good." The founders shared a look that didn't go unnoticed.

**"You've got some nerve -" said Ron loudly.**

**"Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. I heard something."**

**It was a sort of snuffling.**

**"Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.**

**It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.**

**"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."**

**"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."**

**"How's your arm?" said Harry.**

**"Fine," said Neville, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."**

"See Malfoy?" Harry called. "If Pomfrey could mend Neville's bones in a minute, she would have done your scratch in about a second." Malfoy tinged pink as everyone who knew what Harry was talking about laughed.

**"Good - well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later -"**

**"Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."**

**Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.**

**"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you.**

**Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies,**

"Actually I was going to tell you that the proper term for it is the Bat-Bogey Hex," Hermione said.

**but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.**

**They flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.**

**Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by.**

**"He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.**

"He tricked you," Tonks said quietly as she turned to glare at Malfoy.

**Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak -and it wasn't Malfoy.**

**"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."**

**It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris.**

**Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the other three to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.**

**"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter, "probably hiding."**

**"This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run -he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.**

"Sorry," Neville said as he winced.

**The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.**

**"RUN!" Harry yelled, and the four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following - they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead, without any idea where they were or where they were going - they ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.**

**"I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.**

**I - told -you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, "I - told - you."**

**"We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," said Ron, "quickly as possible."**

**"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry. "You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you - Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."**

**Harry thought she was probably right, but he wasn't going to tell her that.**

"You're proud," Remus said. "Lily was the same." Harry smiled. It seemed he was more like his mother than he had originally thought.

**"Let's go."**

**It wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them.**

**It was Peeves. He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.**

**"Shut up, Peeves - please - you'll get us thrown out." Peeves cackled.**

**"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."**

**"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."**

**"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."**

**"Get out of the way," snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves this was a big mistake.**

"Wrong move," Fred and George whispered to Ron.

**"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR"**

**Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door - and it was locked.**

**"This is it!" Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"**

Several eyebrows raised at this. "And you say I'm melodramatic?" Harry joked.

**They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeves's shouts.**

**"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, 'Alohomora!"**

**The lock clicked and the door swung open - they piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.**

**"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."**

**"Say 'please.'"**

"He's not going to say anything now," Remus said sagely.

**"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"**

**"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.**

**"All right -please."**

**"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.**

**"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay- get off, Neville!" For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute. "What?"**

**Harry turned around - and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, he was sure he'd walked into a nightmare - this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.**

Everyone leaned foward eagerly.

**They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden.**

Salazar paused until someone shouted at him that the suspense was killing them.

**They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.**

Sirius, Remus, and Ron's family looked at Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville worriedly. Mrs Weasley glared at Dumbledore, her glare was ignored.

**It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.**

**Harry groped for the doorknob - between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.**

"Good decision," Professor Sprout said faintly.

**They fell backward - Harry slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared - all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.**

**"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their bathrobes hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.**

"What exactly did she think you were doing?" Helga asked.

"Nothing. Let us just get on with the story can we?" Harry asked while blushing slightly.

**"Never mind that - pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.**

**It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.**

**"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."**

"Ronald, this is not a time for joking!" Mrs Weasley snapped, getting over her shock.

"Sorry Mum," Ron said sheepishly. The twins gave him a thumbs up when their mother looked away.

**Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on.**

**"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."**

**"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."**

"That's very observant," Bill said, impressed.

**She stood up, glaring at them.**

**I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."**

"You might need to reorder those priorities," Tonks said. Everyone else just chuckled and Hermione blushed.

**Ron stared after her, his mouth open.**

**"No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you.**

**But Hermione had given Harry something else to think about as he climbed back into bed. The dog was guarding something... What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide - except perhaps Hogwarts.**

**It looked as though Harry had found out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.**

* * *

Review please.


End file.
